Pygmy

Jay, I have not seen any warblers yet...No thrushes either, although I expect they are around...they are not rare in my area but I also don't see them on a daily basis...I did hear an ovenbird this morning, first of the season...Also, I saw meadowlarks last week in Canada... Grouse are drumming......Even heard a cock pheasant crow yesterday, which is rare for my area...Must have been a survivor from the birds that they planted last fall...

I'd love to take you and your lovely daughter out on my boat..Late July should be good timing for perch and smallmouths on Keuka lake, or perhaps Cayuga, which is closer to Ithaca...I am not as familiar with Cayuga as I am Keuka, but I'll bet I can find us some fish...

Good luck, Rob....Hope to see some pictures of some big gators... IMHO, northern are one of the best eating fish, once you take the Y bones out of them...

Time for a story....Opening day I stopped at a friend's house after hunting and a young fellow (20) there had shot a hog of a gobbler, 23 pounds.... He said the gobbler came in and he shot it, and 2 jakes were following it, and when the big bird went down and started flopping, the jakes rushed up to it He told me that one jake started strutting around it, and the other started beating it up...he had it on video on his phone and when he showed me the video, I told him..." Jon....That jake isn't beating up your gobbler, he's ****ing it ! " Sure enough, that jake was humping the daylights out of the dead gobbler !! Gay, necrophiliac turkey porn !! Probably the jake was getting even for the thumpings that the big bird had given... " Take THAT !! Who's the tough guy NOW ??"......

Never saw it, but I guess I am not too surprised.. Red and Grey squirrels are known to be quite fond of songbird eggs and nestlings....

Must have been one of those saber toothed dog man chipmunks... I've heard that they are all over down North Carolina way...Perhaps they are moving north <<cringe>>....

Interesting enough, I have had adult toms spook from a jake decoy, but I have never had a gobbler, either adult or jake, spook from my full fan adult pretty boy decoy... The jake decoy I had was an early model and perhaps it was just a retarded decoy.....Hmmmm.... I ended up selling it to an Amish kid for $2 in a yard sale...

I just hope the Big Chooch doesn't sit on me... I keep picturing the cartoon of the fat lady looking for her poodle and it's stuck in her butt crack....

If a gobbler is gobbling his a** off and suddenly goes silent, it usually means one of two things...he has either gobbled in a hen (which dramatically reduces your chances of killing him) or he is COMING.... It is time to get your gun ready, be still and start watching intently...

I like Jack Daniels, but not enough to buy it by the bottle....I drink it mostly at the Legion, where I get a generous ( usually double) shot for $2.50...If I buy a jug for the house it is usually Black velvet...I like it pretty well also and it is a lot cheaper... On my way into Canada last week, the duty free had Crown Royal for $20 for a 1.14 liter bottle...That was a no brainer.... If price was no object I would probably drink either Jack or Crown exclusively and be happy as a clam...

In the last 2 mornings I could have easily killed 21 deer.....No turkeys so far, and this morning I had a big gobbler at 25 yards and did not kill him.....So many things can go wrong when you are dealing with an adult gobbler...<<sigh>>... I have hunted gobblers for over 40 years, and every year I find a new reason ( or excuse) for NOT killing a turkey....

Great bird, John !! Good one to lose your cherry to...Hehehe... Congrats, My Friend !!

Congrats, Paulie !!! Now go shoot another one !! Good to hear from you, My Friend !!

Nice here in 8X also....I agree about the cold rain..Just spent 4 out of 5 days in Canada sitting in the cold rain, albeit in a blind...Still, it was cold and damp...

I tried switching hands once....Felt like somebody ELSE was doing it......Hehehe....

Gator did not come down....He's awaiting the results of some testing....Hopefully he can make it down later in the season...

I remembered your advice on the first bird, Larry, but this morning I forgot " keep the head down" thing.... Shot right over his head...The bird did not appear to be hit and I looked for a long time for feathers, and not a one , so I'm fairly confident it was a clean miss... Nice bird too <<sigh>>...I came home today...Gotta get my blind set up tomorrow...

Gator hasn't been feeling well,,,He has not been out yet...

I drove up to Canada and discovered that I forgot my camo hat, my crow call and my long johns.. Borrowed a hat from Gator, bought some cheap track pants at Giant Tiger to substitute for thermal bottoms, and so far I haven't needed the crow call...

No bail money needed (yet) but I did kill a gobbler this morning.... I had to sneak into my blind with eh bird gobbling on the roost about 100 yards away inn VERY open hardwoods.. After he flew down, two 3 note strings of very soft yelps on my Bob Harwell box were all it took...I killed him at 6:05 AM. He's a two year old, probably 18 -19 pounds with an 8 inch beard and 5/8" spurs... I was tickled to get him after 2 mornings of snotty weather hearing very little.. This morning was an ideal gobbling morning. clear crisp and still...I heard several other gobblers this morning, including two on the property I was hunting within easy calling distance...Hoping to make a two bagger tomorrow morning..It has been a few years since I took my 2 bird limit here in Ontario,,,

Day one, rainy, cold crappy weather... All I heard was a few distant roost gobbles...Tomorrow is another day ......

I arrived about 8:00 PM last night.. Good trip, but the customs personnel took thier good old time...Took me about an hour to clear customs.. Checked out a property this morning that had produced several gobblers in the past but has been dead the last couple years..Heard one distant gobble.. Moved to another property and heard three and saw two gobblers...I have 2 blinds set up now and am really excited about hunting both of them...Light rain predicted in the morning, but I have rain gear plus a blind, so I'll be set up there at O dark thirty tomorrw.. I'll keep y'all posted...

A buddy of mine pickles the bulbs... So good they make you wanna slap yo' MOMMA....

"Letchworth leaks"....... Paula Darlin'.....When I saw that title I thought perhaps you were going to tell us a story about squatting behind a bush in Letchworth Park.....Thanks for the visual....Hehehe....

Did you ever watch a cormorant take a dump ? They just lean forward, head down and butt up ward, and PATUUNG ! , they propel a big wad of fecal matter about 4 feet out behind them...They have a trajectory about like a 45-70...Amazing !!