Another day of public land hunting here in CA....Birds were quiet but moving....
Went in further than previous hunts since season has been going for almost 3 weeks. Did some soft yelping and heard hens respond, could not tell if they were birds or other hunters though. Sat down for awhile and then moved thru a ravine and over to the next hill....turned around to glass open ground and saw two hens and a tom pretty close to where I just moved from.
Back down thru the ravine and up on to the hill again to try and get close to them. Sat down for an hour and a half, calling about 4-5 times in that period...no response. Got up and walked down the hill, called once, no response. Walk back up to where I was just sitting, probably 30 minutes has gone by since I was sitting here and there they are the hens are walking back out about 45 feet from me but on the other side of a little slope, so they cant see me real well.
I drop to my stomach, making some noise in the process and the hens stop. They turn and start to go the other way so I hit them with one yelp....the Tom (which I could not see) sounds off. I tried to turn and face the way I thought he might come but the hens went on a mad dash to me and ended up about 12 feet from me laying in the grass! They had me pinned down....out of the corner of my eye I see the Tom moving just like I thought he would but I could not move with the hens right on top of me...so I let him go by....no shot but they knew something was just not right. Hens followed him out then I never saw them again and since I am going back out tomorrow decided to not give chase and work them up even more.
Thinking of going back to sit for a long time in the same spot tomorrow.....Birds like this area, have heard them down here before.
Do you think they will be there or will they be spooked from this "close encounter"?
