Sumday May 28, 2006

This morning I had Bill Lang and Aaron Haig with me. Aaron and I had scouted the bird that was strutting below Sausage Hill the other day, so now we had a plan. Aaron and I set up in the lowest corner of Chris's property, just above where that bird is roosting, and right in the hedgerow where he strutted for about a half hour on Friday. Bill sat on a lone tree up on the big cornfield, incase the birds worked up the grass field behind us and we couldn't get around on them. I used the breeding decoy that Larry let me borrow, thinking that it would entice that gobbler across the property line if it wasn't already in his plans. Bill was guarding "Henrietta" from any possible assults. I thought that we had all the bases covered. I had seen this bird four or five days now in the same spot. At 10min. to 5am a goose on the pond below the road woke up our gobbler. He gobbled right where I expected him to be. From that point on, I tried to count, but lost count early. Bill had a better idea and just counted the time between gobbles. For over a half hour that bird averaged a gobble every 12sec. and the longest stretch was a whopping 32sec. That is in the neighborhood of 150 gobbles on roost. Long story short, he flew down and went in the opposite direction. I know there is a nice mowed field over there that is flanked by pines on one side and the woods where he sleeps on the other. It is up behind a log cabin and is pretty secluded. I would go there too! We gave up on that bird at about 6:30 and headed to Putnam's. On the way we ran into three or four birds crossing the road at The Corner's and we tried to get on them, but it didn't work, when we left we saw them on the other side of the road, and they all appeared to be hens. So, we eventually made it to the back hill at Putnam's and hiked up to the first clearcut. I worked those two jakes and a longbeard up there with Sayers on the opener, and Bill and Aaron worked a couple birds there the following weekend. We called our way up the hill and about 250yds from the clearcut, to the north, we got two mature sounding birds to answer back. They were hot and we set up quick. They cut the distance in no time, and slowed up at about 100yds. They wouldn't come any closer, and the only thing I can figure is out is that they didn't want to come through some young growth that was between us. In the middle of that battle we had a bird gobble over on Loder's, a two other birds gobble above us, and one bird gobble up across the road, on the same side as Putnam's house. After that it was just a lot of hiking in 80 degree heat and too many clothes. Shower time was right around the corner.