Calling All Hens (DD1)

The 2014 spring turkey season has finally started. This year on opening day it was very windy and rainy. The couple weeks before the season even started it was very poor weather conditions with a lot of rain and cold days. This type of weather shuts the birds down with a snap of the finger. So therefore opening day was not very exciting because the birds were not gobbling and were not very active at all. This type of slow paced action carried over through Saturday as well. Sunday morning was a bit of a different story however. On Sunday morning there were a couple birds that gobbled early in the morning while they were on the roost. Their gobbling was short lived because I was hunting on a piece of property that is heavily populated with many predators. Once the birds flew down from the roost they shut right up. After they shut up I was able to see a hen walk into my set up of decoys all alone. After she left I waited about a half hour until nine o’clock and that’s when I left. After I left I checked some other fields to see if we could see any other birds. Well sure enough in one of the fields we could see a strutting tom that was able to be stalked. We were able to get around him and the hen to set up. These two birds were already heading our way before we could get in a good position. Unable to set up my cousin and I set up facing toward the two possible directions the birds could come from. After a couple calls we had the hen coming which brought the tom in as well. Well unfortunately because we were unable to set up in a good position the hen was able to pick out where we were and bust us. Even though I didn’t leave the woods with a bird, I still learned of what I could do next time something like this happens.