Sat till 1:00pm again today and never heard or saw a Tom.
But at 10:00am a lone hen came out of the woods into the corner of the field on my end and was only 75 yards away, I assume she'd been on her nest and came out looking for eats. I watched her try to take a dust bath for 10 minutes...but from several showers then hot sun over the past few days there wasn’t any dust...ground was flat and firm...so she’d use the claws on her feet to rake the ground and break a little dirt loose, then get down in it and try to make it work. A turkey is big darn bird and it was just hilarious to watch her get her feet kicking, and her legs moving and wings unfolding and folding back, and flapping around, and every now and then a little dirt would fly up in the air...I swear a couple times it looked like two different turkeys wrestling with each other on the ground...had to fight to keep from laughing out loud...then she got up shook herself off, looked all around like she'd just remembered there might be predators around, then slowly started moving off through the field pecking along...it seems like most every outing is worth it for some reason or another...wish I could have caught it on video.
But at 10:00am a lone hen came out of the woods into the corner of the field on my end and was only 75 yards away, I assume she'd been on her nest and came out looking for eats. I watched her try to take a dust bath for 10 minutes...but from several showers then hot sun over the past few days there wasn’t any dust...ground was flat and firm...so she’d use the claws on her feet to rake the ground and break a little dirt loose, then get down in it and try to make it work. A turkey is big darn bird and it was just hilarious to watch her get her feet kicking, and her legs moving and wings unfolding and folding back, and flapping around, and every now and then a little dirt would fly up in the air...I swear a couple times it looked like two different turkeys wrestling with each other on the ground...had to fight to keep from laughing out loud...then she got up shook herself off, looked all around like she'd just remembered there might be predators around, then slowly started moving off through the field pecking along...it seems like most every outing is worth it for some reason or another...wish I could have caught it on video.
