Michael and I introduced her to our morning hunting ritual of breakfast at Micky D's up the street. That place is going to be the death of me one day! On this morning we got up a little earlier since the sun starts rising sooner each morning. 4:15am comes early in the morning to hunt turkeys, let me tell you! We got to my buddy Kevin's house at 5:30am, he and his youngest daughter were ready to go and we headed to the woods.
After about a 10 minute trip from his house we made our way to the parking area and unloaded our gear. I got Mackenzie ready first and then loaded her gun for her and proceeded to make sure Michael was ready. I didn't have to tell him what to do, he was already and set by the time I turned to check him. We all got loaded up and started for the field. Kevin headed to the same end of the field as last weekend and I told Michael that he would sit at the point where I could see him from the pop up blind that I would set up for Mackenzie and I.
It was begining to break light pretty good by now, so I hussled and got Mikey set up and then put the pop up blind back in the same spot as last weekend. It wasn't long until we heard the gobbles of a far off Tom! Mackenzie said, "That is so cool" she was ready to blast a stinkin' bird as she calls them. I began to call, then I could hear Michael calling as well. We all had our decoys set out this morning and the day was looking perfect. We had a clear sky and warm weather with a rising moon that morning! It wasn't long before other Toms got fired up and started their morning conversation with us. We played the cat and mouse game with them, but they were not going to fall for our tricks today.
At about 7:15am I saw a bird coming from our right. It was angling towards us from across the field. As it began to cross in front of us at about 60 yards it disappeared behind a rise in the field. I thought it was going to head right for Michael. It never appeared on the other side of the hill, but all of a sudden it cackled and flew right towards us and over our blind. It was a hen. About a half hour later I saw another bird crossing the field parallel to us. It was about 75 yards away and I called softly to it. It looked at our decoy and ran right into the woods! I don't know why it did, unless it didn't like our decoy! About 10 minutes later another bird came from the same way the first one did. This one did the same thing as the first one, but it kept heading towards Michael. I told Mackenzie that the bird was going to go right to him.
We watched it walk right to the spot where he was set up. I told Mackenzie that either that bird was a hen or Michael was asleep, because it was right on top of him. He later told me it was only two or three feet away from him when he saw it. He was tucked in some heavy brush next to a tree and the bird slipped in from his right on him. The bird and Michael saw each other at the same time and it kind of scared Mike. He jumped and the bird jumped and cackled, then it flew right towards Mackenzie and I right over our blind. I almost laughed out loud!
Between seeing the first bird and the second bird, Mackenzie had a small problem. She was sitting on a three legged folding stool, and she lost her balance which took her over into the side of the blind. I tried to grab her, the gun, and the blind all at the same time. Over we went, it was quite a site I imagine. We got a good laugh out of that one. No harm no foul I guess.
We did have one incident before we left though. About 3o minutes before we were going to leave I saw a car pull into the parking area next to Kevin's truck. A guy got out dressed in jeans, white shirt and a white hat! He walked to the edge of the field we were in and stopped. He was about 40 to 50 yards in front of Michael and his decoy was in plain site! The guy then walks right across the field between Kevin's and Michael's set ups and bumbled into the woods. We never saw him again. I knew that our hunt was over at that point, so I packed up and headed over to Michael. We all got back to the parking area and never saw the guy again. We figured that he was probably a mushroomer.
He had as much right to be out there as we did, but he showed no consideration for others or his own safety by walking through our set ups. Now had he busted a bird off the field when he did this, there would have been a confrontation. All in all it was a good morning and Mackenzie and Michael had fun. That is what it is all about.
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