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   It rained last night and was cool and cloudy early this morning. When I got to my turkey hunting blind, it was still dark outside. Usually, a person can hear deer, raccoons, and other wildlife moving around in the early morning hours. The new rain made the normally crunchy leaves soft and quiet. Waiting for daylight, I could not hear anything moving in the woods around me. The only sound was a few birds calling into the darkness somewhere off in the timber. Dawn broke without any gobbling. Turkeys do this sometimes, which I find extremely annoying. I cannot tell if a bird is around, where he is or if they are sneaking up on me. It is really bad when a gobbler walks right up to the back of a hunter’s blind and makes the only gobble of the day. It can startle a person right out of their skin. I did not even get that this morning.

   Using my turkey call, I was able to call in a hen. A real hen strolling around among a person’s decoys can be a great help. A gobbler spotting a hen moving around with a couple of decoys is likely to come in. If a gobbler was anywhere around, he was not impressed. Two Jakes did show up, but they would not come into shooting range. When the hen wandered off, the Jakes lost interest and left also. I made occasional calls for another hour or so before I decided this morning was a hopeless cause. I packed up and headed for the house.

   Breaking over the hill toward home, I saw a pair of geese with seven new goslings swimming single file on the lake. They were feeding in the shallow waters near the shore.  I did not know any geese were nesting. Usually, we see where a pair has a nest and keep dogs and power equipment away from them. They must have spent the last month in the backwaters somewhere. Geese have a very limited success rate of raising their young to maturity. The highest mortality comes from the bass that attack from below when the goslings are in the water. On shore, there is a threat from raccoons and coyotes. I paused for a few minutes at the top gate, watching as the clouds rolled away and the sun shined brightly on the newly washed trees and hills. A bald eagle was circling around and finally dove to catch a fish. Two eagles have been hanging around, fishing almost daily. It causes me to wonder if they might be nesting here somewhere. We have not seen a nest, but it could also be in the backwaters of the lake where they would not be bothered like the geese were.

   Back at the house, I grabbed a cup of coffee and joined my wife on the porch. We watched as the eagle continued to hunt swooping down to the surface of the lake. He may also be looking for tender young geese. The hummingbirds are back, fighting over the feeder of sugar water and the orioles are waiting patiently in line to get some grape jelly from the oriole feeder. Everything seemed to be enjoying a meal this morning. It is a good thing my wife and I were not counting on my turkey hunting skills for our next meal.

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