Pennsylvania Game News - May 2021 - 10

was an eye-opening experience. It was
mid-April and the first morning of the
shotgun season, snow on the ground and
falling heavy, temperatures in the teens
with a negative wind chill.
John and I headed into a shallow
ravine lined by trees amid a huge landscape of fairly barren ground. There
was a lot of turkey sign, but it felt like
early January during a blizzard, rather
than spring gobbler season.
Even being well prepared, or so we
thought, it didn't take long for us to get
really cold, so we holed up below the
stream bank where some trees provided
a little protection. The weather eventually cleared, but travelling on the dirt
roads was treacherous, it couldn't be
done without four-wheel drive. Even
then, it wasn't a given you could get
where you wanted.
Late on the second day, I was hunting with another friend and his son;
we were set up in a ground blind in
a pasture field. There were numerous
birds flocked up in the area, using the
creek bottoms as their highways.
Upon hearing some gobbles, I
crossed the pasture and climbed a huge
snowdrift to find two longbeards slowly
working their way across a much larger
grain field.
I returned to the blind and all three
of us took turns calling.
It wasn't long before those two
gobblers came up and over the pasture
hillside and immediately upon seeing
our decoys, hit full strut and walked
straight to them, gobbling relentlessly.
I've never had to climb a snowdrift in
Pennsylvania to find turkeys before,
but hunting them in what seemed like
the dead of winter was a wonderful and

exhilarating experience.

S MANY CAN ATTEST, it's
always amazing what other animals
are attracted to turkey calls. I've unintentionally called in coyotes on multiple
occasions, as well as foxes, weasels, a
mink and even a bear. One of the most
memorable experiences I've ever shared
with my son spring turkey hunting was on
a property that is very dear to us in Rayne
Township, Indiana County.
We'd had some great times on this
tract and, as we set up on a beautiful
spring morning at one of our most favorite spots in the world to hunt, our expectations were high. On this morning, I
was calling for a minute or two, then
we'd sit quietly for 15 to 20 minutes.
Soon something in the distance caught
our attention and it didn't take us long
to realize it was a fisher, working its way
toward us along the ridgetop. As it came
closer, it was evident something was in
its mouth; it looked like a gray squirrel.
Suddenly, we noticed three coyotes
swiftly closing on the fisher, which immediately climbed a small tree to our front
and left the squirrel dangling in the notch
of some branches. Then it descended the
tree and ran after the coyotes. Within a
couple seconds, all was quiet.
We looked at one another in astonishment, until the squirrel fell to the
ground - landing with a small thump -
again drawing our attention. Then it got
really interesting; the squirrel started
crying. We couldn't help ourselves,
we got up and walked toward it. That's
when we learned it wasn't a squirrel at
all. It was a fisher pup and it was wailing for its mother!

Pennsylvania Game News - May 2021

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