I took a friend out turkey hunting this past weekend, and the woods were quiet... Usually by now, the hens are nested up, and the toms are more tight-lipped.
Driving out, we saw a tom and jake (on property we could not hunt) so we pulled over to watch... Birds were used to vehicles, and we pulled out some lunch to observe. Turned out there was a tom, a jake, and a hen...
I called at them for a bit, and every time I called, the tom would go into 3/4 strut... In the course of 20 minutes, he gave one or two "half-hearted" soft gobbles... The hen did yelp back at us...
Eventually, I was able to aggravate the hen into coming up the hill to us, and the tom and jake were not far behind...
The hen came right up to the truck, and headed up the hill before the tom and jake showed (the jake went right after the hen)... As the tom came up the hill, I purred and clucked, and he came in full strutt right next to the truck and put on a nice display before eventually following the hen (and jake) up the hill....
Where I parked, the birds were behind and below us, with a straight shot up a subtle grade to us... They ended up going around us and in front, and took a steeper grade to get up to the truck...
Were I in the woods, I likely would not have known they were there... And even had I heard the first gobble, I would have set up for them coming up the shallow grade, and they would have ended up coming in behind me on the steeper grade...
I wonder how many birds I have waited patiently for, that came and went without my knowing???
