Arkansas Sportsman

Crow divulges bounty of gobblers

Were it not for a prankster crow, I wouldn't have known a gobbler was near.

Flying low through a thicket, the crow buzzed an unsuspecting tom and provoked it to utter a short, quiet shock gobble. That set in motion a chain of events that makes me very optimistic for my upcoming permit-only turkey hunt on a certain WMA. It also makes me optimistic about turkey futures in this part of the state.

This story does not begin happily.

At the beginning of March, there was about a week when I did not have access to my private email account. As I scrolled through the mass of messages, one in particular caught my eye. It was from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. The subject line said, "Permit Draw." I opened it and found to my chagrin that I had drawn a long-desired spring turkey hunting permit for the second weekend of the season at Madison County WMA. That place is overrun with turkeys, and I know where they are.

Unfortunately, I viewed the message on March 15, the day of the online sale for leftover turkey hunting permits that had gone unclaimed by the winners. There was one for Madison County WMA in the sale -- mine.

The night before, Allan Griffin and I had strategized about the best way to score a leftover permit together. We agreed to go for one particular WMA that I know well for the last weekend.

Miraculously, we both got a permit.

On Wednesday, Griffin and I hit the road before sunrise to scout the area.

Granted, a lot will change between now and May 2. Other hunters will kill birds before our time, and other birds will be pressured into silence. The trees will be fully leafed by then, so the woods will look different.

That's fine, but to riff B.B. King, it's springtime, and that's my time.

I already know one part of this WMA where I expect to see turkeys, and my GPS has several waypoints to that effect. We explored a different part of the area that I've never walked, and for the first 30 minutes I was tempted to remove it from consideration. The woods were silent and devoid of wildlife sign.

As Griffin and I stood in a trail discussing a map, the crow dive-bombed a small opening in the woods and provoked a whisper gobble. It was soft and low, and it sounded surprised. Griffin didn't hear it, so I motioned for silence.

"A bird gobbled to the right, close," I said.

I don't like to call to turkeys when I scout, so I didn't bring a call. Instead, I croaked out a few pitiful sounding yelps from my throat. Another bird gobbled to the left, closer than the first bird. Griffin grinned broadly, his eyes glittering with excitement. I grabbed his sleeve and pulled him into a bank of small cedars. We concealed ourselves the best we could and waited for the gobbler to appear.

Meanwhile, a third bird gobbled distantly to the north, and two other birds gobbled even more distantly to the south.

"This is Missouri kind of stuff right here," I said. "I can't remember the last time I heard five different gobblers so close together."

The two "pocket" birds never showed, and soon the woods went quiet again. We continued walking and were astonished at the condition of the woods. They looked custom-made for turkeys, and the vibrant splash of redbuds was simply breathtaking.

We made a wide sweep through that entire side of the WMA, but other than a few tracks in the mud, we saw scant little turkey sign.

As we approached our original jump-off point on the main trail, I stopped suddenly at the sight of distant movement.

"Turkey," I said. "A big gobbler. Big ol' white head!"

"Where?" Griffin asked, his chin practically on my shoulder. I stretched my finger at a big bird ambling lazily away.

When he finally saw it, he could scarcely contain his excitement.

"There's another one behind him, to the right," I said.

We watched the second bird vanish in the first bird's wake.

"This place is slam full of turkeys," I said. "I think we chose well. Yeah, there'll be some birds killed and some will move away, but others will move in. They're all over this country, and I think we could do really well here."

All thanks to a timely tip from a smart-aleck crow.

Sports on 04/02/2015

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