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I am lost. My first time logging in since day and see this big changes.

Hate it.


I didn't know where I saw

was considered the acme of hunting skill. The species has eyesight as sharp as any hawk, keen hearing and a keen sense of smell too, all coupled with an extreme of paranoia (because they know Everything likes to eat fresh turkey). American history abounds with tales of turkey hunters who were thwarted because the birds sensed their presence from hundreds of yards away and skedaddled. For centuries the best way of hunting them was considered to be to stay very still in a position of concealment with a clear field of fire then occasionally make a noise that sounds like a member of a local flock. Camouflage was considered a must.

So yes, turkey calls vary. Thay have meaning too. There are websites you can visit that play the different kinds of turkey calls and also display their meaning. Yes, a language. We are not that unique. Does the cry of an upset Tom (male) turkey generate a better response than that of a hen in trouble or one reporting the discovery of a food source? Opinions vary as what works on one flock often does not work on a flock in a different geography even though their calls do not vary that much across the landscape of their range.

So it was a skilled hunter who had trained himself to be able to emit a turkey like noise, one good enough to full a turkey flock or arouse the emotions of the Tom with the flock. Increasingly technology entered the hunt. Wooden turkey calls for unpracticed city dwelling hunters were the first intrusion. They began popping up in the first mail order catalogs back when the 1800s were becoming the 1900s. Back in the 1950s vinyl records with different calls on different tracks for portable record players began to emerge on the hunting scene. . Today most American Walmarts have little gizmos smaller than a pack of cigarettes with a row of buttons you can press to generate different animal calls when hunting and of course the noises made by turkey are amongst the range of push button options.

Still the turkey is considered a wily and cautiously paranoid quarry that flees at the first sight of a human, a cat, or a dog or a fox.

I am here today to tell you this is no longer the case. Today's wild turkey is calm, and laid back. No calling is needed in the places they are found.

This morning i let my cat out. There were turkeys. They looked at the cat and he went back inside but the turkey never moved and were still there when I came back out with my cameral. This was the scene at my front door.



A close up.



And in the side yard, where I shot some turkey last year..



This change of prey behavior, transforming hunting from an act of skill to something more akin to picking a peach from a tree takes much of the point and purpose of developing the skill set needed for good stealth in the woods away. Of course it also IMO threatens species survival as they remain very good to eat.