Short Turkey Article
05-22-2012, 03:59 PM
#1
Typical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Kansas
Posts: 616
Short Turkey Article
Kansas Wild Turkeys
By Doug Watts
Wind was no problem on the October afternoon that I climbed into my Ameristep ground blind for an afternoon hunt. Why was wind not a problem? There was plenty of it blowing around on this mild afternoon. Sustained winds were around 20 miles an hour from the south. That usually means I'll see game moving around without drawing too much attention to myself getting to the spot where my blind is set up. Kansas wild turkeys were not the first thing on my mind when I climbed into my ground blind... after all archery season for deer had been in full swing for the last two weeks and I had bigger quarry on my mind.
I arrived at my blind at about a quarter to one in the afternoon to watch for wild game in the area. This is quite early in the day for me because my afternoon hunts usually begin around 4:30 pm. For some unknown reason I had decided to go out a few hours early just to see what might be moving around. I had been in the blind only a few minutes in which I set up my video camera on the tripod and settled in to observe my surroundings.
I was looking out the front window opening when I noticed movement to my left. In the waist high switch grass, I at first saw a single little blue head bobbing up and down through the tall wind blown grass. Then two heads, two quickly became five and five quickly became ten. Within a matter of just a couple minutes I was in the midst of a flock of wild turkeys. Sometimes no more than a few feet from my ground blind. They never knew I was there and went about their daily routine much like chickens would, pecking and scratching the ground. As they circled my ground blind they were SO close you could hear them walking and vocalizing with each other. Check out the short video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Anvjpug6jYA
They stayed around my blind for about two hours. Slowly feeding, walking, scratching, playing and sometimes fighting with each other. I have never witnessed wild turkeys feeding an it was a real treat to see them and the way they eat grass by grabbing it at the bottom of the stalk and running their beak all the way to the top of the stalk. All was captured on video. Maybe a few more early trips to the ground blind are in order.
