Mid-may and I’m still trying to fill my spring turkey tag. After what felt like an unseasonably cold April and early May, the weather finally warmed up on Monday. Naturally, I was in my turkey blind at 6 am waiting for the birds to wake up. The property I’m hunting has had very fickle birds the past several weeks. If the weather is sunny and above 55 degrees they have been moving and gobbling, but with the colder days have remained stationary and silent.

At around 9am this morning 4 hens walked right past my blind. I could have reached out and grabbed one. They were intent on one thing—getting some food. I watched them and whenever they were looking the other way ripped a yelp on my slate call. I was hoping If I could get a tom looking our way he would see 4 turkeys moving near my jake decoy and come to investigate. The highlight of the morning was when one of the larger hens walked right up to my Avian X hen decoy and pecked at it several times.

While the birds were eating nearby, several loud gobbles rang out from behind my blind. I was able to call back and forth with the tom for about 15 minutes, but never could get him to enter the clearing where I had a shot. At one point I went to open a window in the back of the blind and see if i could catch a glimpse of the gobbler. This caused a very frantic keyed-up hen, who I hadn’t seen yet, to scamper back towards the tree line.

After the gobbles died down, I left the blind and found a tree near where I heard the gobbles and called for a while, but never heard another gobble. I feel like I’m closing in on this tom, but haven’t gotten a shot opportunity yet. With just over two weeks left on my spring tag I am intent on finishing out strong. I will be hunting every morning I can and some of the warmer evenings trying to bag my tom.