4/4/15 Hunting Trip

      On Saturday my sister and I got up at 4:15 and hit the road by 4:45. On our way to the farm we had a perfect view of an incredible full moon. It was certainly one of the brightest nights I remember seeing. When we were about half way to the farm my sister said that the moon was not full anymore. I told her it was probably a cloud but their was a perfect crescent shadow on the moon. After I realized that it must be a lunar eclipse. When we had made it to the blind the moon was nearly 90% gone and as it dipped beneath the horizon it had totally disappeared. When I got home I found out it was the shortest lunar eclipse of the century.
       Back to the hunting part. We were still getting everything set up in the blind when the first gobble sounded. I did not realize just how much stuff we had brought until we had to fit it all inside the blind. From the backpacks to the shooting stick, from the calls to the stools we were packed in there pretty good. I had never heard more turkeys any day than on that morning. Some times when toms hear something loud they instinctively gobble at it. When a owl would hoot or when someone made a loud noise on their farm five or six toms would gobble simultaneously. We saw a couple deer on the hill where I had seen them the day before. Throughout the morning I would give out a series of calls attempting to get a male to come in. At one point we heard a gobble from behind us, the last place I expected. I kept an eye back there but never saw anything. I was sitting on the ground to give Mindy plenty of room so I really could not see a whole lot. At one point she whispered, "Ben! Ben! There is one right there!" I asked her how far on the other side it was, and she said it was about 20 yards.  I looked and sure enough a bird 50 yards away was there but walking towards where we heard the other flock. I gave a couple calls but it was quickly behind the hill.
       Things settled down after that. I continued calling as the decoys sat in the corn stalks all alone. Just like every other day the birds across the river came out and put on a show. I gave Mindy the binoculars and let her watch them for a while. She loved seeing the the toms in full strut. Every once in a while Mindy would look at me and whisper as quietly as possible, "the gobblers are running at each other!". Thank goodness for that. The most important thing when taking kids hunting is to make sure they can do something they enjoy. Mindy loved watching the birds and as soon as they were gone you could tell the excitement level went down. As long as she is enjoying herself I feel like its well worth the time and effort. Although we were not able to bag a bird it was still great being out on a beautiful day with my sister.