Ok you guys have made this the longest wait ever! Well you and the birds. I woke to an over night rain, cold and fog. More of the same tomorrow. Yesterday I finally had the time to leaf blow the trails to 8 ground sets and 2 blinds, plus cut up tree tops blocking trails. Lots of scratching in the area. So I know the birds are there. I'm never sure what they eat in this area except the wild flowers, but the leaf blower uncovered a bunch of stuff. Tons of red worms, blk carrion beetles, larvi , several small and a couple of really big garter snakes( rather angry with me), centepeedes. Today was a planned clothing and gear gathering but first thing I got an urgent baby sitting call, so grams drove out so their mom could get to the Dr. She had surgery last week. I did get my range finder, small bino's, thermocell out. The two new miss purfect hen decoys are ready to go. So now to get clothing out and ready,rain called for tomorrow so I need to decide on which blind to use. I have to check cam cards. I pulled two when I took out my new turkey blind chair..Oh so comfy. I have a chair blind to set here in a min. and then pull those cards. Now if I can manage not to choose the wrong area, because I am surround by turkey hunters and they sit right on the line facing our land.
So chair blind is set and level sprayed down with sawyers that cam is showing just hens. So it's a toss up between two blinds because another cam has had a long beard and 2 jakes walk past around 8 am a few days.. The other bas hens and a single long beard feeding a bit away but in view of the enclosed blind.. One area is more open, the other mid woods..rain and wind . I've taken birds both places in rain . Good luck to all others going out for the first time tomorrow
My gut says this time of year, follow the hens. If you find them, you'll find the toms. Set out the decoys and make some calls. If they can see them, they should come. Uncovering all the bugs was good. If they eat them, they'll be back in the same area again. They need food sources just like any other animal in the woods. Best of luck!
Thanks for the encouragement, but alas the weather beat me today. I was just getting my shoes on when roar, rumble, rumble, rumble. Wind is howling and we are just on the edge of some yellow orange (radar)thunderstorms. That took out just about all of my sets save one. I hit the blind that toms have been walking past at 4:45am. Set the hens out then settled in with the Coldwell shooting pod set up. OMG, it was way colder than I thought, I can't believe I made it till 9:45.. I'm still shivering. Of course I heard one single shot across the road behind our place, but I think much farther up hill. Though with the wind blowing from that direction and as hard as it is who knows. I know I never heard a single bird. I saw a young buck acting very spooky and watching his back trail. Red and grey squirrels. The pines my blind is tucked up against were filled with chickadees and other small birds. Just now it has lightened up out there but I'm still seriously frozen. I had a turtle neck, heavy blk sweat shirt and a heavy fleece jacket on, plus a base layer and heavy fleece pants on. A bandana and a fleece balaclava and knit gloves. When I left there was a frozen mist blowing through. lets hope tomorrow is a bit nicer..lol
So this is why you dress warm and stay longer..Checked this dying cam last night, zero count. Went out to check two other sets at 2pm today and 4 pics...from the shadow, between 10:30 and 11;30... So glad I have a sense of humor...
Rain ,fog no sound of birds, hey it's not cold and windy alls good. Sound of rain on roof is making me sleepy
Well it cleared a bit and I got Tom talking. Then heavy fog rolled in again and all went silent. As I typed this I spotted a dark figure in the distance..,a white head. He started to turn away and I purred and clucked. He looked but was lower than my decoys. I lost track of him and now hear gobbling at my back line. No way he made it that far so fast. Just yelped and gobbler answered closer. Dang fog I can't see 50 yrds. In front if me.
Alls quiet again...1 hr. 15 mins left. I'll bet this fog lifts right at noon. I hear a bird to my left and a gobbler way over in the nieghbors gully. One up on my ridge to the right. This fog has them spooked. Don't blame them between hunters, fishers, fox, and yotes. WTH! I live on a engine smoker, brake killer hill and the Dang traffic today has been like the 390 490 split. there's nothing up here! Well that didn't go through on my phone so here it is with this follow up. To the minute weather cleared at noon, then bam! A crazy amount of black flies came out. I went out and checked how far away the tom was. 60yrds. in the mouth of our gully. The gully starts on our land and is fed by our nieghbor land run off. He ciuldnt see my decoys and then followed the gully up to neighbors. Oh well at least I got one close.
6:39 just stopped raining and I called in a hen. She came right up to blind and scolded my decoys a bit then followed my cleared trail back toward house. No Tom's in sight yet.
Even though I'm cozy in my 9 yr. Old cardboard/tarp blind. It's pouring out and I hear thunder across the valley..we get rip roarers here so as soon as it let's up I'll be giving up. Eewww. Maybe sooner! Here are some pics from my cushioned office chair. First is through door window to deck, last is the inside roof. I have to say, how well this worked surprised even me. It's on a N/W slope so it gets hammered all year.
Back at it for the last 30 mins. I got a bird talking think a Jake yelp. Up on neighbors...hhmmm an awful lot of crows up there to...hhhmmm. making so much racket that's all I can hear. Sun peaked out, gosh just before season end (day), dang things on a cosmic timer. Mail man told me we are the only ones getting fog over the last few days. Nahhh, really?!...lol
NY has always done everything in their power to ruin hunting..... The half day Turkey hunts are par for the course .
I wish I could say it bothers me but spring is crazy time for me and if it were a full day ...I'd never get anything done in years like this. Now In 3 days I haven't heard 3 shots near me. Two but I'm thinking only one was close. But there are a lot of Tom's around or were two weeks ago . I'm surprised I'm seeing lone hens. Especially the way the weathers been. Sitting in a blind I plan on using this week end. Need to do a fix and battle the spiders. I have a really bad thing with spiders. Got into the blind last year as it got light I look up to see I'm sitting under, no exaggeration here,well over 50 black jumping spiders. I about jumped out of my skin then shook it! WTH! This time red ones but less than a dozen. I also open windows enough for people to notice. They just hate it when they can't tell where I am. Had one guy walk up to my line about infront of blind and start yelling and cursing at my open windows. I was standing in the woods watching him, hands on hips shaking my head. Well until his buddy saw me and told him what was up. He walked away..lol, idgit
Well from this doghouse blind I can glass the beef farmers hay field and the chicken farmers plowed cornfield and a huge section of my woods and two plots in them. This is actually a crossing intersection used by all animals... not a bird in sight. I am starting to wunder what I'm thinking dragging this 61 yr old body out of a warm bed at 4a.m.. Walking a half mile through dark woods in miserable weather . Just to sit damp and chilled complaining to you about it. I could be home ,cozy warm,sipping coffee and eating an English muffin ,yelling at the news on TV..content..LOL
BTW..A good reason to always remember the 3 point connect in climbing. This morning I'm climbing the wooden ladder on my 8 ft tower blind. 2/3 up the rung snaps and down I go catching the rung under it. That has my knee and ankle stiff,even on such a short drop. Thankfully it is an old wooden extention ladder that is not extended. The reason I used it. It gives me two rungs for safety. Though I didn't seed my foot on both rungs thus the drop. I was able to use second to finish climb. Looks like I'll be screwing in new PT steps across the front of each rung before next use. I had my other foot on the rung below and hands on two different rungs. It snapped just as I lift my foot off the rung under it.
Ok talked myself back to the house for the warm cup of coffee and an english muffin. I'm thinking it will clear right at noon again today. I also needed to come home and put an ankle brace on ..yep bruised and sore. Tomorrow is suppose to be a lot nicer. I have to go pic up DEC trees, 25 concolors to plant and fence.
