Turkey Calling and More Scouting

Dear Readers,

Thank for all the visitors the last few days. This blog is brand new and already I've had some readers from US, Canada, and Australia so thanks for your loyalty and if you enjoy this please "subscribe" by clicking top right and entering your email. But the way if you care I can't see the email addresses of the subscribers. (Maybe there's a way but I don't think so.)

I haven't posted in a few days yet I've been busy in my quest to hunt and eat my first animal. I have to add I've been a fisherman since I was a kid but I've never hunted and the prospects of delicious wild game have just intrigued me too much to ignore. I just missed the 2017 deer season but I do have some news from today: today I just purchased my first hunting license ever! I'm so excited. It struck me that I can go out tomorrow and take some rabbits and squirrels - crazy!

The next season coming up is Spring Turkey. In Massachusetts the yearly limit is 2 turkeys. Either 2 in the spring or one in the spring and one in the fall.  You can't take two in the fall. I found some land in between my house and my buddy's house in Rhode Island and we'll meet up there in the spring to see what we can do.

I wanted to tell you a little bit about the class I took at Mass Wildlife (Department Fish and Game.) It was a one hour "turkey calling class." The cost was free - anyone can sign up. It's paid for by hunting or sporting licenses like the one I bought today.  There's other lessons, too, and they are all FREE. For more info on these you can go to: https://www.mass.gov/service-details/hunter-education-course-descriptions

There are classes on trapping, black powder, water fowl identification and more. They are very well run by experts and people passionate about what they do. Everyone is so happy there because it seems they love their jobs and bringing knowledge to those interesting in acquiring it. I chose to learn about mouth calls and finally I think I have it down.  There was a moment where I heard about 20 grown men yelping away like hens. It was pretty funny.   I brought the slate call and box call and the instructor showed some of those calls, too. I swear it's an art form - he whipped out 6-8 different calls and they were all so different it was amazing.   If you have free hunter education in your state it's a fun and educational way to learn - even if your not interested in hunting at all!

Today I bought a turkey vest from Sierra Trading Post - I'm excited about that first turkey hunt. Still, I'm just marking time until deer season. I continue to scout areas and used the snow and warm weather to scout some buried public land. I had to go deep into some private land to find this piece of public land.  There were some "no trespassing" signs, but no footprints anywhere in sight. PLUS the next day was 59f so I knew all the footprints would be gone. In my last blogpost I linked to great article on tracking. It mentioned the splaying of the hoof is a signal for big tracks and I saw some that were surely monsters! I got turned around and a little lost and wanted to head back. I could see there was some marsh coming up but it's been so cold I was able to walk across the marsh and found some really great bedding areas.   You can tell where there's water just by the look of the grass.

I found lots of felled timber and this kills me - beavers. I like to walk around to different deer areas and those beavers are such a nuisance. They'll take a forest filled with cover and trees and flood it, make it impassable, and kill all the trees. I can't tell if that log to the right here has the bark stripped off by a deer or a beaver or something else.

 Here you can see some older beaver signs - probably 1-2 years old. You can tell from the greying of the wood it isn't fresh.

Below you can see something definitely fresh - those webbed feet with the tail drag behind it.  Funny this place is now completely inaccessible because of all this swampland but I found a ladder stand on what's now an island. I could only access the island because of the frozen swamp.
Well that's it for me tonight. I hope if you like this blog you subscribe and check in to see my progress this year. I'll be back with news soon enough!