A Bobcat, An Owl and The Doctor

Before you go thinking that today’s column is a “Three guys go into a bar joke!”…it isn’t. This is about 30 minutes on one Saturday morning in early May and it is days like these that keep my belly fired up for the outdoors.

The doctor in the above title is JD Headdy; resident physician and all-around great guy. JD and I…we go way back, our relationship is based on the fact that his daughter, Kristen, played volleyball for me for a few years and was quite frankly one of the best I have had and without question the best server that I ever coached. Doc is one of those guys that just has your back when you need someone to be there. I still laugh from time to time when I think back to a late fall afternoon in a gym not too far from here when…let’s just say the other teams parents weren’t liking me…and JD got fired up and was ready to take on all of them, at once!

Fast forward to this spring, we exchanged turkey stories at a recent track meet; this exchange led me to invite JD along on a turkey hunt. A few days later and I met him and his friend and neighbor, Ron Thomas at the CVS in Spencer and off we buzzed in search of a long-beard. Our first Saturday was exciting as I parked both the guys under a pair of Tom’s and we got to watch the largest of the two strut up and down his tree limb all while gobbling at every note I made on my slate call. Unfortunate for us on this day was the fact that we set up about 100 yards west of 7 hens; once those hens flew down hill and began ‘sweet-talking’ the boys…it was all over for us.

We agreed that we’d give it one more try the following Saturday. In the big scheme of turkey season…things can change in a week’s time. Hens will begin laying eggs and when they reach a number for a clutch, they often quickly leave a Tom and begin their long and arduous journey of raising young. We decided to leave Ron on top where we were last Saturday, then JD and I carefully snuck our way deeper into the woods and I had JD sit against a huge poplar tree about 25 feet from the creek.

If you haven’t ever turkey hunted there is a point in which you reach your destination and the only thing to do is to settle in and enjoy the tranquility for a while. It was still quite dark at about 5:50am when I heard and noticed something moving just ahead and between the two of us. I really couldn’t make it out but as it got closer I could tell that is looked like a big tom cat…but we were a long ways from any home or farm? It kept creeping along; all of a sudden it must have got a whiff of one of us and went flying out through the brush, crashing along as it went. Later we would both discuss it and we were quite sure it was a young bobcat who just stumbled upon us.

Once again the woods calmed down for a couple minutes and then I heard a loud owl hoot from just behind us. My first thought is always wondering if it is another hunter; I was kind of looking over my shoulder when I saw the ‘real-deal’ come flying right past me. This definitely startled me as the owl flew up to a nearby limb, landed, ruffled its feathers and gave a loud hoot. The cool part came just a second later as a nearby Tom gobbled. It was just nature doing its thing and I thought to myself that even if we weren’t here…the same scenario would have happened. I quietly grabbed my slate and gave a soft tree yelp…gobble. A few minutes went by and once again another yelp…another gobble.

I was thinking to myself that this might just go well when I sensed that something was moving just up the creek from us. I gave one more tap on the slate call and could see that JD was now cautiously repositioning, turning to his right just a bit. I hadn’t heard anything for about five minutes and certainly hadn’t heard a bird fly down…BOOM! Sure enough Doc had smoked a big Tom. I quickly stood up and walked over to where I could see JD still sitting with a wry grin on his face. I gave him a big fist pump and proceeded to move to his bird about 25 yards away.

It was one of those great moments when a plan comes together. The bird was a big ole Tom with not one, but three beards. You may wonder why he came slipping in but not even five minutes went by when we heard yet another gobble and another Tom had opened up about a hundred yards out. I am quite sure that this bird was slipping in…looking for love and doing so as quietly as possible so that he wouldn’t have any competition with the hen (me). Either way it was one great morning topped off with the harvest of a mature gobbler.

If you haven’t ever turkey hunted then there may be no better time to begin as turkey numbers in Indiana have rebounded and sky-rocketed to all-time highs. It is never too early to start planning; fall season will be here in no time and what a better excuse to get out into the wild and Enjoy the Great Outdoors.