Coming back to Camp/ On Locator Calling

This may be weird to y’all, but there is nothing that quite compares in my life to being away from camp for 2-3 months and then coming back in. I spend the whole winter fretting about the place. It’s weathered ice storms, tornado and so on, and it is always such a relief to see it. In the time away I’ve had to deal with the holidays and the stresses of life at the plant. I really get to missing the place.

What’s more, there is a perfect time capsule of the end of deer season waiting for me, right down to the paperwork for the taxidermist and the processor. In between coming through the door and getting the first fire lit, I see where my life was when I walked out and it shows me how much has changed.

It’s getting so the first trip back in late Winter is more than Christmas, and the there is nothing quite like the feeling I get when the water’s back on, the fire’s built and the bags are in from the car, and I can finally go out back to my spot and look out over the fields bathed in moonlight and take that first sip of good scotch. In a little while, I will have to get the grill going and put the steaks on, but for that one brief bit of time, I can be at peace with the world.

. . . but so much for that.

You know, I seem to learn more about turkey hunting just sitting on the back of the house in the morning than anything else this time of year. Take this morning for instance. I went out at 0630. Sunrise was at 0700. I owled and got nothing and started owling every 5 minutes or so.

0635 — First gobble. It came from Dead Skunk Hollow. Not only was it the first of the morning. It sounded miserable– clipped and garbled and. . . then I got to thinking. This guy was not gobbling the previous morning. This might be this turkey’s first gobble ever. About this time the crows cranked up and a barred owl down in another hollow close by the house started up.

0650 — The crows came over and mobbed the owl. The owl turned himself inside out with a chuckle, but it took a good long time for a second gobbler to sound off. This one was way down in Hootin’ Holler.

0700 — Sunrise. Everything was quiet.

0710 — Geese started up from the Linking River bottoms. Both the first and second gobblers responded. This is the second year in a row I’ve heard winter gobblers responding to geese over crows and owls. Remember that guys: goose honkin’ may be an ace in the hole as a locator. The geese moved up Willow Creek and then settled into a place in the bottoms nearby. This in turn set off everything– turkeys gobbled, crows, owls. Finally the coyotes, a ridge or more over to the north, chimed in. This lasted for 5 minutes and then everyone suddenly decided to shut up and get on with their day.

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