Volcano devil bird #2 (story added)

[3seasons]

These birds have been and are whooping us. Between them and the volcano and the 8300-9000ft elevation we are worn out. They are hen'd up something bad so that adds to it too. But we've had a really good time. Got my second bird this morning before the sun peaked over the mountains.

I have ruined a pair of keen hiking boots on this rock. It's a gorgeous place to hunt but it's tough. I'll share my story after we get back home. Here are some pics


One of the Good Lords ways of looking out for me, it was like a bridge

[harleytom]

Beautiful pics and a great adventure. Congrats

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[Double B]

Incredible hunt, can't wait to hear the details!   

[FullChoke]

You are the Big Kahuna, my friend. Fantastic hunt. Can't wait to hear the juicy details.

FC

[buzzardroost]

You are the Big Kahuna, my friend. Fantastic hunt. Can't wait to hear the juicy details.

FC

Can't wait to read the story.


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[Sand Man]

Not me.  I hate you!   

[Sir-diealot]

Congratulations to you. Something about that tree really gives it some character and I mean besides the turkey.

[3bailey3]

congrats awesome hunt and bird!

[3seasons]

Hawaii 2018
March 18, 2018
Reid and Myself decide to split up to cover more ground and hopefully find a willing bird. As it turns out the bird I was hoping to hunt was nowhere to be found but I did hear a bird past the water feeder and below the road so after 4 gobbles I take off after him. After going about 3\4 of a mile I finally got close to where he was and eased off into the rock filled hillside.  As I got close to a ditch I got tripped up on lava rock and almost went down. Aggravated and tired I stopped to gather myself and the bird gobbles again and he's close.  I ease up some more and once again trip in the darkness. The next time the bird gobbles he sounds like he's 1\2 a mile away, I figured I had bumped him but it was nothing I could have done so I just eased up the tree and after about 2 min he gobbled again but real close. He was turning on the limb but out there when the y turn away there is nothing for the sound to bounce off of so it sounds way off. I ease up a little farther and I see him in the tree and there is no easy way for me to get real close, so I eased off into the rock ditch and made my way to the next tree. I couldn't go any farther without being in the wide open so I crawled to the base of the tree (soft purring and clucking as I went) and slid around the back side of it.  As I looked where he was he was nowhere to be found and I knew I had just made to much noise, then I see him in another tree just looking around and half strutting.  The small ridge he is on ends where he is and hes overlooking a bowl and can see literally over a 1/2 mile+ in any direction. He has the ultimate vantage point and even though they don't have predators like we do here he's not even thinking of flying down to the ground until he seen a hen under him.  I make some soft calls and he gobbles and struts and looks as if he is about to pitch out of the tree in my lap. There is a runway like meadow with scattered scrub trees between me and him. It's a perfect set up but he's looking for the hen that keeps clucking and purring. If I had a decoy and could have somehow eased it out there I believe he would have landed on me.  So the call gobble look goes on for what seems like forever and just when I think he is about to pitch out I hear a cluck on the other side of the thicket from him.  He immediately turns on the limb and gobbles at the hen that he is now looking at and prepares to fly down.  I know if he flies over the thicket to a hen it will be almost impossible to get him so as he squats to leave the limb I steady my dot on his head and just as he jumps I pull the trigger. Now he wasn't on the roost anymore since he swapped trees so l see him as a smart ol' limb hopper and proudly my second Hawaii volcano Bird.  I've never shot a bird off the roost and I've had a few opportunities to  but I'll shoot one in the air if I have to and to me a limb hopping bird like this is almost impossible to kill since they won't hit the ground until they see that live hen under them.
I once hunted a bird when I was in high school for the entire season, he would light the woods up until the hens got to him. Finally I brought my dad to help me one morning and after he quit gobbling around 9 that morning we walked to see where he had roosted to try to figure him out a little better. Little did we know he was still in the tree.  He pitched out of the tree and sailed through the timber and we both just stood there in awe and disbelief, He was a white gobbler or white phased and he was unbelievable looking.  That was the one and only time he was ever seen, he disappeared into the timber like the ghost he was.         

Hawaii was one of the , if not the hardest places we've hunted to date but It was fun and ill for sure go back.