Down the Home Stretch

Today begins the final week of the 2013 spring gobbler hunting season here in Virginia. The season has been extremely exciting, the best I recall in terms of the numbers of birds to which I have been close and the crazy behaviors I have seen some exhibit. However, it has also been quite grueling, especially with the days getting longer and the sun rising earlier, needing to wake most mornings here lately around 3:30am. You've got to be dedicated, insane, or likely a good mixture of both to stick it out for the duration of the season! With not many birds gobbling during the latter part of the season, most hunters start to opt for sleeping in. But my goal is to fill my third and final gobbler tag, something I have never accomplished, and in order to get it done, I have to keep going, keep putting myself in locations where I know birds are staying and hope that one morning this week it will all come together.

Hebrews 12:1-2 (NASB)
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (NASB)
Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

The Best Made Plans

I took the opportunity last Monday to try something I had never done before - predator hunting. My primary reason for wanting to learn how to do this is to thin out some of the coyotes that have been moving into eastern Virginia. Many area hunt clubs saw significantly fewer whitetails this past season, and popular opinion is that coyotes are playing an impact in these lower numbers. Well, the presence of coyote tracks and scat, as well as sightings by deer hunters, indicated that a pack was spending time in our hunting vicinity, so we felt pretty confident that we could have at least one come into our setup. However, despite being well camouflaged, setting up in locations with good predator sign, playing authentic-sounding wounded rabbit sequences on our electronic call, and keeping the wind in our favor, we did not have any predators, including coyotes, come into our multiple set-ups. What we did discover, though, was that there were plentiful numbers of crows in the area that were curious and that even responded to our coyote calling. Fortunately, we had a couple dozen crow decoys in the truck and several crow sequences loaded on the call, so we decided to change gears, change firearms, and take advantage of the crows' receptiveness. We had a huge group of crows come into our layout within the first 30 seconds of playing the initial fighting crow sequence, and had a great time shooting that group and those that followed as they circled back on several occasions to check out the commotion. We were even able to replicate our setup and have similar success in another other area before the action slowed.

Proverbs 19:21 (NIV)
"Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails."

A Limited Perspective

There have been quite a few foggy mornings in our area recently, and I endured one of them during a pre-dawn drive on the way to waterfowl hunt. This was one of those extremely thick and dense fogs that you can barely see a few feet in front of the vehicle. I had to drive the majority of my hour long trip well below the speed limit, hoping and praying that I would not have any encounters with animals or other slow moving vehicles. Toward the end of my drive, the fog lessened greatly and by the time I had arrived at the duck hole, there was no fog around at all; things appeared perfectly clear and quite vivid compared to what I experienced earlier in my drive.