Poor birds

Coldest place in the country.

How economic forces and industrial decline led to a Great Lakes tragedy

 

When Tom Nelson came to my house about 40 years ago, he was running for some office. I asked him why he'd want that job? Liked him ever since. Highly recommend reading his latest work.

Never forgot sitting in a restaurant, having perch dinner in Menominee, Michigan in November 1975. The whole place went absolutely quiet when word got around - the Edmund Fitzgerald went down in Lake Superior. Turned out, with everybody onboard. 
Gordon Lightfoot - "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald"

City or Country

 

City turkeys got it better than country turkeys.
Less predators and no hunting 😲

Versatile Dogs

Pheasants are another favorite of our dogs. They often bark after a flush too!

Pennsylvania Opening Day

 Kaily, the dogs, and I made it out to our camp for opening day of Pennsylvania’s fall turkey season. We had a little bit of late start and finally started hunting about mid-morning. The first stop yielded some fresh sign and a small break. We sat for about an hour and a half and nothing happened. 

We began working our way to the main road and I passed a gate that looked promising. We stopped and it didn’t take long for the dogs to break another flock about 400 yards from the vehicle. At this point, it was around 2:30 pm. 

Around 4:00 pm, we heard birds trying to regroup. We had a juvenile at about 35 yards, but it didn’t present a shot. Things went silent and we rebroke the flock.

About an hour later, we had another juvenile come from the top of the ridge (where we were originally set up). It was a little under 40 yards when it picked out something it didn’t like and pitched down the ridge. Shortly after that, another bird begins keeing and walked up the ridge and Kaily made an excellent shot. At this point, it’s less than an hour until sunset. 

I decided to stay a little longer to see if we could  call in one more bird. Not much later, another bird came up from the bottom. It continued to walk back and forth below a small dip and it took awhile for me to get a clean shot opportunity. I was an to get shot at the same exact opening Kaily killed hers! I shot it about 5:55, roughly 15 minutes before sunset.

Both birds were young juveniles, 5 lb. 4 oz. and 4 lb. 10 oz. Kaily’s bird had really neat colored wings! 

We’ll be done turkey hunting for a bit. I’m hoping to make it back to Wisconsin at some point.