Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Turkeys 2, Johnsons 0

We gave up on our turkey hunt this morning. Our change of tactics involved each of us going to a different location (where we've heard turkeys every day this season) and sitting on the ground in full camouflage with a shotgun (the way we used to hunt turkeys before we used a blind). We were really optimistic this was the morning that we'd get our birds -- and I was thankful it was above freezing since I would be sitting outside on the ground.

As it started getting lighter and lighter, we still weren't hearing any gobbling. What's up with that? I wondered, since I was sitting practically right underneath the trees they had flown down from on Sunday morning. I checked in with Mr. Johnson on the radio to ask if he was hearing anything where he was sitting and he confirmed that nothing was going on over there either. It was as if someone had just come in overnight and taken every single turkey out of that area!

I did hear one turkey gobbling from probably a half-mile away and across the river, but there was no way he could hear my calls and was going to come to me. Finally about 9 AM, we just decided to hang it up for this disappointing turkey season. It was such a nice day we decided to pack up all our stuff and go home and see if we could get my motorcycle in for an oil change this afternoon. So at least we'll get to take advantage of the nice weather with a motorocycle ride.

Here are a couple pictures from our turkey hunting adventure:

Mr. Johnson next to our hunting blind. This is the Double Bull Blind; it was kind of pricey, but we really like it. Lots of room inside for 2 people and all our gear and we can actually stand up inside too. It's pretty easy to get set up and take down too, plus the fabric is very heavy and stands up well to windy and rainy conditions.

Here's a picture of me looking like a camouflage Michelin man! I'm truly amazed how much fatter these multiple layers of warm clothing make me look!

However, the morning wasn't totally disappointing for me.....I got to see several yellow-rumped warblers (my first for 2008) and also got this great little video of a Brown Thrasher singing from the treetop (he's a little hard to see, but look right in the center of the video). Can you recognize any of his imitations?

12 comments:

Beth said...

well, I'm glad the warblers and a ride made your day worthwhile--sorry about the lack of turkeys--the fresh organic natural meat would have been nice to have in the freezer. But as you showed in the pictures, a day in the woods is never wasted.

Anonymous said...

It was a conspiracy against you by the turkeys. They said sorry Johnson's not this year, what a bummer. The day wasn't a total loss, just loved that thrasher, you can always tell they are around cuz they do a recording of all the bird calls in the area, at least that's how I tell when they are here.
Love the pic of the Michelin Man in camo, very funny, I laughed pretty hard. Dad asked what's so funny so I showed him.
Mom

Windyridge said...

It's going to be in the high twenties temperature wise tomorrow and my son has convinced me to take him out. A lot of kids have already shot their turkeys. Maybe we will get lucky in the morning. It's going to be ccccccold and we will be leaning against a few trees across the road from our house here and sitting on the cold ground. I prefer afternoon hunting…it’s warmer!

Lisa at Greenbow said...

I about cracked up at just the title of your post. How many rounds do the Johnsons go before they give?

You certainly have the gear for the hunt. Just keep having fun.

me ann my camera said...

Even though your hunt didn't result in getting any Turkey's it was really interesting reading about it.

Jayne said...

LOL Ruthie! Sorry you guys didn't have much luck, but how fun that you still got to see the warblers and video the Thrasher. :c)

RuthieJ said...

Hi Beth,
It's our second year without a turkey, so we were pretty disappointed, but like you said, I got to see a lot of neat things by getting out of my office for a few days.

Hi Mom,
I think it IS a conspiracy! It's humiliating to think that the turkeys might be smarter than us!
I'm glad you got a good laugh from this post.

Hi Windyridge,
Did you guys get a turkey? I hope your turkeys are more cooperative than ours! Before we hunted from the blind, I always tried to find a tree that faced east so when the sun finally came up it would shine on me to warm me up those cold mornings (then I would fall asleep!)

Hi Lisa,
I maybe should have put that score as turkeys = 5 since we had 5 days to try and bag one. Oh well, it was a pretty good time anyway.

Thanks M&MC. I'm glad you enjoyed my turkey stories. At least there was lots of other interesting stuff going on.

Hi Jayne,
I'm glad you enjoyed my story too. I like to try and find some humor in most situations (although Mr. Johnson was NOT amused most of the time).

Ruth said...

Those turkeys have an informant. I love your camo gear! The weather looked half decent at least.

Larry said...

Cool blind.-The thrasher imitations seemed tricky-I caught a bit of Blue Jay.I guess some Turkey Seasons are better than others. If they were all great you wouldn't have anything to compare them to.

Marsha said...

Sorry you didn't have a more successful hunt. Looks like you are going to have to settle for a Jennie-O :-) With camo that good you should be able to hide from the birds too and get some great camera shots.

RuthieJ said...

Hi Ruth,
Those turkeys have gotten a lot smarter over the years! But you're right, it was a really nice day to be outdoors.

Hi Larry,
I heard a little bit of bluejay in the thrasher's song too. They're quite the songster. I think next year we'll definitely choose a later season and maybe it won't be so cold.

Hi Marsha,
Camo is great for getting better pics in the woods! I had a wren land on my boot a few years ago and the morning of this post, a squirrel came within about 8 feet of me. I think he had his eye on the tree I was leaning up against, but I moved so he wouldn't run up my leg!

Robin (Bumblebee) said...

Great photos! I especially love to see you relaxing in your camo! What a hoot.

Robin at Bumblebee