Sunday May 21, 2006

Last day to get a bird. I have been reminded numerous times that my guiding was not working, in a joking manner of course. I decided to try Sausage Hill first, because we hadn't been there yet, and all my other spots were wearing thin. I also didn't want to pressure Putnam's any more than I had. We listened just above the tower and at 6:00 I decided nothing was going to happen and I assumed that the strong winds the night before could have forced the birds to roost down on the backside. We got to the trail that drops down there, and I made a locator call on my Lynch's world famous turkey caller, but nothing answered. Again, we reached the first switchback and I turned to tell Ned I was going to make a call. Before I could do so, a bird gobbled about 50yds away. I was so shocked I didn't know what to do. We quickly setup on the closest available trees. The bird sounded off again with the coolest gobble I'd ever heard. It was almost like a whine-gobble. There was a high pitched whine right before he broke into gobble. He sounded off four times, and on the fourth my heart sank as I realized he might not be on the ground at our level on the hill, he may still be in a tree. Sure enough, my realization was true, the next sound I heard was him flying down, onto the bench above me. It was easily a 30ft. elevation change, with no good way to get down to us. Had I realized he was in a tree, we would have ran back up the road and setup on that bench above us. I called very softly on my Primos Power Crystal, but he wouldn't answer. The next gobble came as he crossed the trail where it starts to drop over the ridge. He left us on a "good" note however, as he made on final double gobble about 150yds away. We gave him ample time to vacate the area and walked out. We ran into two guys, one who wasn't wearing a facemask, and was drinking coffee out of a silver thermos. That guy never even saw us as we walked five yards from him and turned down the trail to get out of there. I saw that his gun was pointed away from us, and was laying across his lap, so I didn't bother to let him know we were there, he would't have been able to get the gun around on us if we startled him. We went over to the Corners and worked from the bottom of the pines where Jason Sayers and I ran into the opening morning bird for the third time all the way down the valley to where that bird was roosted on the 6th. No birds to be found there. As we got back to the truck it started to downpour. Since it was a chilly 44degrees, and I had a seven hour drive ahead of me, we opted to call it a weekend. I hated giving up early, and I repeated my own advice of "persistence pays off" all the way through PA on the drive back. This is starting to get frustrating, but I have confidence................and patience! With any kind of luck, my next post will be accompanied by at least one picture!