Sunday, May 23, 2004

Bird in hand and another close encounter After fishing on Wed., Mike & I headed up to Clarence to brother Pete's.  Wed. evening, I sneaked out to scout the woods we planned to hunt Thu. and saw a regular parade of turkeys heading to roost.  Saw at least two mature toms and maybe a dozen more rednecks, tho I didn't try to get close enough to judge beard length. Thu. morning, Mike, Adam and I set up as close to the roost trees as we dared.  I put them closer to the roost, hoping they'd get first crack at a bird.  We all heard a few birds early and saw a hen or two, but the gobblers eluded us.  Finally, Mike & Adam saw a pair of toms strutting about 100 yards away.  Mike & I both called, but the wind made it hard for us to hear their gobbles and, we surmised, hard for them to hear us calling.  When the pair began heading my way, I started cutting loud and sassy on a Primos Freak strapped to my knee.  It worked!  The pair gobbled at every cut, so I kept cutting harder and sassier.  After a long while, they headed slowly in my direction and I kept cutting.  I had their attention and knew there were hens in the area, so I kept hammering on the Freak until it was obvious they were coming.  At 30 yards, I shot the lead bird as the second bird stepped behind a tree.  They were so close together I didn't want to risk shooting both of them. Bird No. 2 looked at his downed compadre, then walked back to where he had come from.  I had hope he would run toward Mike & Adam, but no such luck.  We moved closer to where that tom had gone and called for another hour, but saw nothing. Back at Pete's, he weighed 16 lbs, 15 ounces on my digital fish scale.  Had a 10-inch beard and 3/4-inch spurs, so quite clearly a two-year-old, but a lightweight bird compared to others I've seen. That night, I drove back to Canisteo.  Friday morning, I hunted there again in the same place I had hunted on Sunday.  Heard a gobbler before daybreak and this time set up closer to him, but he walked north instead of east.  I couldn't tell if he heard or saw me or simply wanted to go his own way.  Funny thing, though.  After I moved 90 degrees to get into a better position, I never heard him again, which leads me to believe maybe he saw me. Friday evening, it was back to Clarence.  This time Shivani and I parked the trailer at Sleepy Hollow Lake Campground in Akron and chilled out that evening and the next morning.  For the first time we actually "camped" instead of parking it and running off some place.  Sat., we visited Buffalo News outdoor columnist Mike Levy recuperating from a hit-run bike injury (A lady ignored his hand signal and knocked him off his bike at an intersection, then sped away as onlookers watched helplessly.) and then had an early Mother's Day party with Mom & everyone at Pete's. Sunday, we hit the road for Indiana.  Stayed Sun. night at Wooded Acres Campground near Fremont, OH, same place we camped on the way out.  Monday, we camped at Twin Mills Campground near Howe, IN, then scouted Shipshewana for a Tuesday assault on the world-famous flea market there and found Uri Miller's farm way out in the sticks, where we bought a couple gallons of sorghum syrup. Tuesday, we spent a couple hours at the flea market, but bailed out when the cheap jewelry and dumb T-shirts just kept popping up at stand after stand.  There might have been something worth looking at there, but it wasn't worth the hunt.  Much more fun to shop at Yoder's Dept. Store and a couple other Amish emporiums.  Bought a couple straw hats and took a serious look at a propane refrigerator. It took us all day Wed to pack up, drive home through Chicago's rush hour and unpack enough to move back in.  There were two inches of rain in the gauge and a big puddle in the low corner of the basement. Thu. it was back to life as we know it, with a 7 a.m. edit session, a taped interview in the afternoon, several deadlines to meet by Monday and a lawn that (now ten days later) I still haven't mowed. Later... 9:56:59 PM    comment []

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