Outdoor Life - "Shooting" Turkeys
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Luke captured this image last week close to home during a spring turkey ‘hunt’ with his Nikon camera. Photo by Luke Clayton
By Luke Clayton
Last week, I was in the turkey woods well before daylight. The day promised to be perfect for a spring turkey hunt, calm winds that would allow the sound of my plaintive hen yelps to carry back into the woods where I knew several turkeys had roosted. I had “put them to bed” the previous evening while scouting. Several gobblers sounded off from their roost tree just before dark to my owl hoots. The stage was set this morning for a close encounter with one or more boss gobblers as I placed Henrietta, my plastic hen decoy, about 25 yards out in front of the brushy fence line I intended to use to conceal myself from what I hoped to be a close encounter. Henrietta had helped me dupe many a gobbler in past years and I placed her in a prominent spot in front of my blind so that an approaching gobbler would spot her from quite a distance and hopefully close the distance and offer me a close “shot”.
Since mid March I had called in and “shot” a total of eight gobblers and I hoped to make it number nine this morning. WHAT? You are thinking, is Ole’ Luke doing hunting turkeys before the season opens in mid March and WHAT is he doing killing eight gobblers, way over what the law allows! Before you call the game warden, I need to tell you I was “shooting” the birds not with a shotgun or bow but rather a Nikon camera equipped with a good 300mm lens! As I mentioned in a previous column, my wife recently had shoulder surgery and I’ve assumed duties of chief cook and bottler washer around the homestead, I’ve been sticking close to home the past few weeks. But thankfully, Rio Grande turkeys were stocked in my portion of the county a few years ago and the birds seem to be flourishing. There is no open season here and probably won’t be for several years. I am hoping the birds continue to propagate and one day provide hunters with the opportunity to bag a ‘close to home’ gobbler but until that day I will continue to do my shooting with my trusty Nikon.
Most spring turkey seasons, if I’m lucky, I’ll harvest one or two birds and my hunting is over until the following year. This year, I’ve spent more time hunting turkey with my camera than I would normally do in several years and, I believe the experience has made me a better turkey hunter. I’ve had the opportunity to actually observe the birds rather than focusing on sending a heavy charge of #4 shot to the bird the moment it comes within shotgun range! I’ve watched gobblers fight and puff themselves up strutting to impress hens, I’ve been so close I could actually hear the tips of their wings dragging the ground as they strut. One one occasion, I actually watched the birds mating.
Back in March, I noted the turkeys, both hens and gobblers, were in large flocks but then about the end of March, the flocks began to disperse and I was seeing hens looking for nesting sites a long way from where I was filming them back in late winter. I’m sure this is nature’s way of increasing the bird’s range. I’ve witnessed this phenomenon the past several years, around the end of March, something tells the hens it’s time to move away from the flock and seek nesting sites and I’ve seen them travel a mile or more to find that perfect spot to nest, lay their eggs and raise their young.
Hens right now are mostly solitary but I often see mature gobblers together in pairs or maybe three birds. Jakes or year old males remain together in flocks and where I see one, there is apt to be several. These young gobblers are easy to call in and will often come running when they spot a hen decoy.
Turkeys are smart birds; they have to be in order to survive all the predators. We have a large population of bob cats, coyotes and an overabundance of raccoons and skunks. I’ve read studies that indicate wild hogs account for just over half the predation on turkey nests. With all the hogs in our area, it’s a wonder the birds are holding their own, much less increasing in numbers but they seem to be doing just fine. A few years ago, it was a rarity to see a turkey in this part of the county and now it’s become commonplace, we occasionally spot hens traveling through our yard in the spring in search of nesting sites.
Restocking wild turkeys, both the Rio Grande and Eastern birds, is nothing new in Texas, through the years thousands of trapped birds have been relocated to suitable habitat. Eastern birds were originally stocked in counties along the Red River in northeast Texas. The birds are holding their own in some areas and on the decrease in others. In Red River County where I was raised and where the eastern birds were first restocked, many of my friends report far fewer birds than just a few years ago, the reasons are unclear but I have to think predation by furbearers and wild hogs is a primary reason for the decrease. Years ago smaller numbers of trapped birds were released but biologists are currently doing ‘super stockings’ with around 80 birds per site (3 hens for every gobbler) in areas with suitable habitat.
It is unclear if there will ever be a turkey season here in Kaufman County where I live but I’ve learned that hunting them with a camera is ‘almost’ as much fun as with a shotgun or bow. It’s very nice to have the opportunity to shoot photographs within a half mile of my home on land owned by a couple of friends. The down side is that I won’t be enjoying wild turkey fajitas and chicken fried turkey breast dinners!
I filmed a turkey segment for our weekly TV show “A Sportsmans Life” that you can watch on YouTube or Carbon TV www.carbontv.com.
Contact outdoors writer Luke Clayton by email through his website www.catfishardio.org
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