There must have been 4 or 5 gobbling from roost all around the cow pasture (cows conveniently grazing elsewhere). I put out my strutter and hen decoys and hid, and was talking back and forth with the closest one, who had now flown down but not in view. Lots of hen yelping down his way too, then see a hen coming to me through the woods. Hoped she would bring the gobbler in but she made a bee line for me and made me at about 8 yards, putted a couple of times and headed back toward where the gobbles were coming from. Gobbler answered me a couple more times but going away, no doubt with my rival. Few minutes later a red fox trots by at 60 yds with something in her mouth about the size of a young rabbit, pauses and looks at my setup, then is on her way. Gobbling has tailed off and I decide to relocate to a spot where I've seen gobblers late morning, where a little isthmus of pasture connects 2 larger pastures. About 10:30 three jakes come by, mill around with my decoys for about 10 minutes, then mosey on. I seriously considered killing one but decided to save the spot for a set-up in a couple of weeks with a friend from NC and his 11 year old son, whom I have been trying to help kill his first turkey for the past 3 years. Spent the rest of the morning following the Va Tech-UVa baseball game on the smart phone, no more turkeys. Since this spot is close to where I have found Morels in the past (another reason I chose to set up here) I went over to the creek bank where I had found "hickory chicks" 3 years ago (but not since), and viola!

Heard one gobbling good what sounded like a mile away on the roost, one gobbled about 8 on the ground and that was it. Not much going on in my area this morning

Thanks for posting playin hookey. That is a great morning and proves that a dead turkey picture is not needed for a successful morning.


Earl

Yum, yum...our Redbuds are starting to bloom here, which means the morels aren't far behind for us, I'll have to keep on the look out.

Good luck on getting your buddy's boy on some birds, this may be "the" year.