Kansas Turkey Adventures
- Thread starter kansasdad
- Start date
A mile from the office….this silly turkey’s video is going on national blast
reallyoldman
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2021
- Messages
- 220
We live in Westminster CO as suburb of Denver. In a subdivsion. Last week I look out on our deck and there sets a hen turkey on the railing. A long way from turkey habitat. Ya just never know who or what is going to show up,,,,fox, coyotes, raccoons, doves, rabbits, squirrels, ravens but a turkey ? She stayed about 15 minutes.
Kansas turkey season closed yesterday, and for the first time in forever I will have to settle for (electronic) tag soup.
But there was a resounding moral victory on the way off the WIHA back to the SUV. I ever so gracefully wiggled under the fence and put my pack on, about to clear the ag field's edge when I caught movement in the freshly planted field. A bobcat was walking into the field, carrying a rabbit in its mouth. Freezing, I watched this cat walk out, put the bunny on the ground, and then get low and let the bunny make an escape attempt, only to be caught by the cat and returned to the field for several more staged escape attempts. Finally the bunny lay still and the bobcat ate every ounce. At 42 yards I could hear the munching.
Finished with his meal, the cat sat up and looked around. He stopped his head turning when he was looking directly at the copse of shrubs where I was standing. Never taking his eyes off of me, he started slowly walking towards me. Some of the tall grass in front of me was making the %#+=@7 autofocus on my camera focus on the foreground and not the advancing super kitty. I still was able to get a couple of nice images of a super predator.
He got to 8 yards and turned to his left. The fence crossing was at 14 yards. He finally caught my scent or movement and bounded off a few moments after the above photo was captured.
YouTube video uploads at midnight. I'll post the the link when it is made public.
But there was a resounding moral victory on the way off the WIHA back to the SUV. I ever so gracefully wiggled under the fence and put my pack on, about to clear the ag field's edge when I caught movement in the freshly planted field. A bobcat was walking into the field, carrying a rabbit in its mouth. Freezing, I watched this cat walk out, put the bunny on the ground, and then get low and let the bunny make an escape attempt, only to be caught by the cat and returned to the field for several more staged escape attempts. Finally the bunny lay still and the bobcat ate every ounce. At 42 yards I could hear the munching.
Finished with his meal, the cat sat up and looked around. He stopped his head turning when he was looking directly at the copse of shrubs where I was standing. Never taking his eyes off of me, he started slowly walking towards me. Some of the tall grass in front of me was making the %#+=@7 autofocus on my camera focus on the foreground and not the advancing super kitty. I still was able to get a couple of nice images of a super predator.
He got to 8 yards and turned to his left. The fence crossing was at 14 yards. He finally caught my scent or movement and bounded off a few moments after the above photo was captured.
YouTube video uploads at midnight. I'll post the the link when it is made public.
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Sheltowee
Well-known member
Thought the Wildcats in your part of country were purple?
Great photos and great story!
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2016
- Messages
- 1,878
Great video! You had mentioned the auto-focus issue. Was this video on your phone camera or a just a camera?
Came out awesome!
There is a backstory to the video title. Our middle daughter got a bobcat hand puppet that she named Bipsy. It was one of her favorites. The company that made Bipsy is still in business, with the photo showing the current model of puppet.
Sheltowee
Well-known member
Back in my homeland, where our Wildcats wear blue, there is a minor cottage of taxidermists stuffing bobcats dunking basketballs.
Deadspin | Let Taxidermy Bring Out The Wildcat In You
Deadspin | Let Taxidermy Bring Out The Wildcat In You
deadspin.com
The photos and videos are from a Nikon Coolpix B500. A pretty decent "point and shoot" (no changing lenses) with 40X optical zoom/4.0-160mm, 16 megapixels photo size, 1080 video. Internal microphone and flip up flash. Takes great macro photos if well lit, in darker scenarios (my dental patients in the back of the mouth) the macro suffers compared to older CMOS processors on other Nikon coolpix cameras I have used.
It does have bluetooth connectivity that would simplify posting to HuntTalk, if I ever get around to synching them up (old dog/new tricks comparison)
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OTC permit uploaded to the phone, permethrin sprayed and dried on the mismatched camo, and I was off for the turkey woods with the anniversary crossbow (https://www.hunttalk.com/threads/35-years-ago-today-and-a-surprise.273757/) slung over my shoulder.
I was leery of the weather forecast, as high winds with hail was a decent possibility scattered around south central Kansas this afternoon.
As is my habit, I drove along the south side of the property, down to the next dirt road and drove the 4 square mile loop checking out the neighborhood. Winter wheat was coming along just fine, and in one of those fields I saw my first strutting turkey of the year. This tom’s fan was looking slightly worse for wear. If it was a suit jacket the word rumpled would be appropriate.
As I was getting dressed I once again checked the weather radar as the cloud formations looked like they meant business. The hour by hour for the closest town predicted heavy rain in 90 minutes, something that wasn’t predicted earlier this morning when I checked.
My plan was to wait in ambush within archery range of where I had seen the local flock gathering before flying up to roost this past December. They were using the top of the dam as their takeoff spot, and then flew across the narrow pond to the cottonwoods of the other side. I had killed my last spring bird right here two years ago (I don’t want to talk about my lack of personal turkey success last year!)
I set up my hidey-hole so that I had a clear shot onto the dam runway, expecting a bird to not see me until it was well in range, and I would be well screened to the hayfield by a small cedar bush.
As I was setting up the shooting sticks I heard my first gobble of the afternoon. With nearby storms building size, the wind was shifty and strong. Waiting for a break in the wind, I put the striker to slate for the first time this spring and layed down a very respectable yelp sequence.
Far off I imagined another gobble. Back towards the darkening horizon there was a constant rumble of thunder. And on several occasions I thought that I might also be hearing footsteps in the creek bottom and maybe even drumming.
The gust front hit the little ambush spot, bringing with it a very light rain. Keeping the slate face down so that I could stroke out some sweet amorous noises, I heard a couple more random gobbles far away.
I heard the hen before I saw her. She was coming down the hill and headed right at me. I tried to exactly mimic her calls, and it seemed to work to fire her up. Reaching the edge of the hayfield she started to feed. Staying 15-25 yards away, I watched here through the cedar, and at the same time I was trying to tip my backpack towards me so that I could get fresh batteries for the camera. She hung around for more than ten minutes, and I hoped that this live decoy would pull in a big boy.
She finally drifted out of sight, which had me thinking that it was safe to pull out my stadium seat to get my back some support while sitting on the ground. Evidently she wasn’t fully out of sight as I saw her scooting away out in the hayfield. Eventually she left the field and flew up to roost 90+ minutes before sunset.
As the rain intensity increased, I learned something about my iPhone. Every rain drop was read as a keyboard stroke as I was trying to share with Mrs kansasdad what a fun encounter I had had with the hen.
Checking the radar one last time, I saw the big blob of red intensity storms headed my way, and I decided it was time to leave for sure when the cloud to cloud lightning started becoming cloud to ground strikes.
Thanks Kansas, you gave another amazing outdoor adventure.
I was leery of the weather forecast, as high winds with hail was a decent possibility scattered around south central Kansas this afternoon.
As is my habit, I drove along the south side of the property, down to the next dirt road and drove the 4 square mile loop checking out the neighborhood. Winter wheat was coming along just fine, and in one of those fields I saw my first strutting turkey of the year. This tom’s fan was looking slightly worse for wear. If it was a suit jacket the word rumpled would be appropriate.
As I was getting dressed I once again checked the weather radar as the cloud formations looked like they meant business. The hour by hour for the closest town predicted heavy rain in 90 minutes, something that wasn’t predicted earlier this morning when I checked.
My plan was to wait in ambush within archery range of where I had seen the local flock gathering before flying up to roost this past December. They were using the top of the dam as their takeoff spot, and then flew across the narrow pond to the cottonwoods of the other side. I had killed my last spring bird right here two years ago (I don’t want to talk about my lack of personal turkey success last year!)
I set up my hidey-hole so that I had a clear shot onto the dam runway, expecting a bird to not see me until it was well in range, and I would be well screened to the hayfield by a small cedar bush.
As I was setting up the shooting sticks I heard my first gobble of the afternoon. With nearby storms building size, the wind was shifty and strong. Waiting for a break in the wind, I put the striker to slate for the first time this spring and layed down a very respectable yelp sequence.
Far off I imagined another gobble. Back towards the darkening horizon there was a constant rumble of thunder. And on several occasions I thought that I might also be hearing footsteps in the creek bottom and maybe even drumming.
The gust front hit the little ambush spot, bringing with it a very light rain. Keeping the slate face down so that I could stroke out some sweet amorous noises, I heard a couple more random gobbles far away.
I heard the hen before I saw her. She was coming down the hill and headed right at me. I tried to exactly mimic her calls, and it seemed to work to fire her up. Reaching the edge of the hayfield she started to feed. Staying 15-25 yards away, I watched here through the cedar, and at the same time I was trying to tip my backpack towards me so that I could get fresh batteries for the camera. She hung around for more than ten minutes, and I hoped that this live decoy would pull in a big boy.
She finally drifted out of sight, which had me thinking that it was safe to pull out my stadium seat to get my back some support while sitting on the ground. Evidently she wasn’t fully out of sight as I saw her scooting away out in the hayfield. Eventually she left the field and flew up to roost 90+ minutes before sunset.
As the rain intensity increased, I learned something about my iPhone. Every rain drop was read as a keyboard stroke as I was trying to share with Mrs kansasdad what a fun encounter I had had with the hen.
Checking the radar one last time, I saw the big blob of red intensity storms headed my way, and I decided it was time to leave for sure when the cloud to cloud lightning started becoming cloud to ground strikes.
Thanks Kansas, you gave another amazing outdoor adventure.
Masters Sunday or turkey hunting? This is why DVR’s were invented!
I snuck into the exact same spot where I was chased out by the rain yesterday. I let the woods settle down before calling, waiting in vain for a return gobble.
I pulled everything out of my pack searching for my favorite slate call (Primos Ol’ Betsy) and realized that I had put it on the passenger seat to dry out from last nights rain. Fortunately I had a crystal call needing surfacing and I had the sandpaper to roughen it up.
I had planned on calling sparingly knowing that I was on a major travel corridor, and I’d hoped that they would come along eventually.
Glancing up from my phone, I saw a redness moving in the far treeline. Binoculars confirm first one, then another and finally five toms entering into the field. I call, they gobble, and then they get into a keystone cops madhouse chase, carousing across the hillside, ignoring my calls. They get to the fence opposite me and keep working to my right, 200 yards away.
Finally stopping harassing each other, they begin to respond to my calls. The only problem is that they continue to drift further right. The horse pasture on the other side of the fence was burned this spring, and it looks like those toms are strutting on a golf course fairway.
Gazing back to the trees where these hoodlums appeared, I spot another red head, along with two hens. It’s still more than an hour before sunset, so there is still plenty of time for my plan to come to fruition.
The big bodied Jake and his two lady friends end up making their way towards me and commence to feed just on the other side of the small cedar, a scant 15 yards away. Once again I think that I’ve got live decoys, how could this fail?
10 minutes later and the trio are still content to keep feeding, the toms are gobbling at the neighbor up the road target shooting, and to my sporadic sotto voce’ calling.
I glance at the time….20 minutes before sunset/end of legal. The trio has heading up the fields edge, so I feel like I can call a bit more aggressively. Two toms answer from the “golf course”. Weaving their way through the pecan grove in the middle of the hayfield, I hope that these toms will walk into a small shooting lane in the cedar. Instead of passing by at 20, they scoot through at 40+, so I didn’t even contemplating shooting. Had it have been shotgun season, I’d be finished turkey hunting for myself this spring.
The two boys keep moving away, one of them fanning out, butt towards me showing what he thinks of me, perhaps.
The clock kept rolling, and the end of legal arrived. Four birds had already flown up into a big cottonwood across the pond from where I was sitting as I packed up. And then I heard some clucks from the hayfield. Another dozen turkeys were heading towards the pond, with one tom coming within five yards. He finally sensed something amiss, changed his walking direction and started putting in alarm. This got the hooligans riled up again, so that there was a swirling mass of turkeys chasing each other across the field. I took this opportunity to melt deeper into the woods below the dam and made my way back to the car.
By not getting a turkey tonight, I get to keep having great turkey adventures.
Thanks Kansas
I snuck into the exact same spot where I was chased out by the rain yesterday. I let the woods settle down before calling, waiting in vain for a return gobble.
I pulled everything out of my pack searching for my favorite slate call (Primos Ol’ Betsy) and realized that I had put it on the passenger seat to dry out from last nights rain. Fortunately I had a crystal call needing surfacing and I had the sandpaper to roughen it up.
I had planned on calling sparingly knowing that I was on a major travel corridor, and I’d hoped that they would come along eventually.
Glancing up from my phone, I saw a redness moving in the far treeline. Binoculars confirm first one, then another and finally five toms entering into the field. I call, they gobble, and then they get into a keystone cops madhouse chase, carousing across the hillside, ignoring my calls. They get to the fence opposite me and keep working to my right, 200 yards away.
Finally stopping harassing each other, they begin to respond to my calls. The only problem is that they continue to drift further right. The horse pasture on the other side of the fence was burned this spring, and it looks like those toms are strutting on a golf course fairway.
Gazing back to the trees where these hoodlums appeared, I spot another red head, along with two hens. It’s still more than an hour before sunset, so there is still plenty of time for my plan to come to fruition.
The big bodied Jake and his two lady friends end up making their way towards me and commence to feed just on the other side of the small cedar, a scant 15 yards away. Once again I think that I’ve got live decoys, how could this fail?
10 minutes later and the trio are still content to keep feeding, the toms are gobbling at the neighbor up the road target shooting, and to my sporadic sotto voce’ calling.
I glance at the time….20 minutes before sunset/end of legal. The trio has heading up the fields edge, so I feel like I can call a bit more aggressively. Two toms answer from the “golf course”. Weaving their way through the pecan grove in the middle of the hayfield, I hope that these toms will walk into a small shooting lane in the cedar. Instead of passing by at 20, they scoot through at 40+, so I didn’t even contemplating shooting. Had it have been shotgun season, I’d be finished turkey hunting for myself this spring.
The two boys keep moving away, one of them fanning out, butt towards me showing what he thinks of me, perhaps.
The clock kept rolling, and the end of legal arrived. Four birds had already flown up into a big cottonwood across the pond from where I was sitting as I packed up. And then I heard some clucks from the hayfield. Another dozen turkeys were heading towards the pond, with one tom coming within five yards. He finally sensed something amiss, changed his walking direction and started putting in alarm. This got the hooligans riled up again, so that there was a swirling mass of turkeys chasing each other across the field. I took this opportunity to melt deeper into the woods below the dam and made my way back to the car.
By not getting a turkey tonight, I get to keep having great turkey adventures.
Thanks Kansas
