What's the birds doing now??

[10 point]

Are they still henned up to the hilt?? I was out Sunday and they were henned up still pretty bad. Any drastic changes happening yet with the hens going to the nest early?? I'm getting back out Thurs and Fri. School and work has me tied up till then. I was hoping some of these hens would go to the nest with this warm weather we are having. Have any of you noticed how green the woods are?? You can barely see through them. By the third week you'll have to set up in some sort of clearing to see!! That will make for some tough hunting too. Remember guys with all of this foliage the gobbles sound farther off than what they really are. Sunday we set up on a gobbler we roosted the night before and he started gobbling. He sounded like he was across the darn hollar. In all actuality he wasn't over 150 yards from us. The foliage makes the gobble distorted. If you can hear the gobble pretty well, chances are you are really close to him with all of the leaves on.

[M.Magis]

I've been getting mixed reports. My buddy and I both are both hearing lots of birds, even after flydown. They seem to be working great also. Most other people I've talked to are saying that they aren't hearing anything after flydown, and very little before. I've been seeing a number of lone hens, which is a good sign of nesting, but I also saw 5 together late last week (along with a big gobbler), and I saw a pair together last night. The late winter really has the birds behind their normal schedule from the last few years. I think if it weren't for that, we'd be having a tough time with the later season. So far it hasn't been nearly as bad as I expected, but I'm afraid it might be next year if we have a warm winter. Your right about the foilage. It sure can fool your ears. I'm used to having at least a week of season before things green up much.

[Turkeyfoot]

Watched a nice gobbler strutting behind two hens this morning shortly after flydown. The young hens never shut up as they answered my calls but the gobbler was silent the whole time! I watched as they passed at 60 yds out of gun range. try as I might, I just could'nt turn the hens in my direction knowing the gobbler would follow.

I was against a big poplar and leaning on another big tree that had fallen right next to it when out of the corner of my eye I caught movement. A young jake was sneaking in silently in half strut 20 yds away. I purred ever so softly to see how he would react. He slowly turned and headed right for me. As he got two the log, he jumped up on it not 10ft away . There we were eye ball to eyeball. "Caulk".....he putted loudly and took off runnin at high speed! Sure like to have had that one on video:D Oh well, I wonder what surprise tommorrow will bring?.......TF

[Turkeyfoot]

AM found me in my treestand armed with shotgun and recurve for close in shooting if the opportunity presented itself. At flydown, I worked on 2 jakes as they slowly made their way toward the 2 decoys I placed within 5 yds of my stand. As I strained my eyes in the fog looking for movement, the same jake that jumped on the log the previous morning was again silently sneaking into the decoys from my left. He half strutted to within 3yds of the decoys and almost directly under my stand!:eek: It's very hard to get to full draw without being seen at that closeness. I was waiting for him to get directly behind one trunk of the huge 4trunk poplar. He finally did just that and I drew and slowly leaned forward hoping to pin him to the ground at 3 yds! PUTT!! He saw me before I could draw a bead on his beady little 3" beard and quickly ran out of range and stood there putting. I've read that a turkey can see 280 degrees and that includes strait up as I found out today. My stand is about 12 ft up and concealed well nestled inside that 4 trunk poplar but it still was'nt good enough. Guess I'm gonna have to ask Santa for one of those double bull blinds this year:D

[10Gauge]

I hunted 7 days the opening week and a retired friend of mine hunted all this week as well........he logged 12 days straight in the woods! BTW he is 70 years old and kills birds (big birds)every year there has been a turkey season in Ohio. We were both shut out in SE Ohio but plan to hit it again next Monday so I'll keep you posted.

I'm not 100% sure what is happening in Morgan County, OH. the check-in station only had 9 birds checked on opening day and typically they get 90+!!! The farmers in the area tell me they think the heavy (24+ inches) of snow that held on for nearly a month might have had a toll on the birds there? But we found plenty of scratching sign saw many hen's but heard very few gobblers compared to previous seasons (even last years poor weather hunting season).

Maybe they are henned up like some of the guys on this post seem to think but I tend to believe most of the hens were already on the nest in that area. Tom's and even Jakes seemed to have went looking for greener pastures!

Got plenty of time to blast one given this long season and strategy is changing almost daily. The plan next week is to use the buddy system and hunt together. We know where a couple of birds roost and we'll try to put them to bed then move into their area before light and set up on both sides of his roost tree! Last week they would come off the roost and always go away from our calling so I think the key will be to sit quiet and wait for the big boy to walk by.