It was a perfect day to take on turkeys for the first time.  I drew a tag with my boyfriend for Missaukee County where he had some hunting land in an area that also had a lot of surrounding state land. Neither of us had tried turkey hunting before so we were both full of anticipation. It was a blue bird spring day and we had tried hard to locate some birds since early morning.  Giving up, we were driving back to our camp on his property for a break.  On the way, while driving past some heavily wooded state land we saw a large tom near the road.   He was very beautiful and looked as if he were glowing in a beam of sunlight coming through the trees. His iridescence glowed like a prism in that morning light.  He was obviously a bird of prime condition and the way he carried himself told me he knew it.  Thinking there would be more birds we decided to continue driving on ahead to the camp and doubling back through the state land a ways and then try and call the birds towards us.  We split up hoping to improve our odds.

I walked a long way in perpendicular to the road and then headed the direction I had seen the bird.  Hoping he’d hear my call and come back in looking for who the mystery girl was.  The area was a mix of spruce, aspen, ash, balsam and oak. I slogged through some swamp in the morning light and walked until I felt I was in a reasonable position.  I noted that there were several morel mushroom patches as I cruised the woods.  I found a pretty place in the trees that I was sure no turkey could resist, it was grassy and dry with an opening ahead of me.  I took off my pack and gathered my tools and snuggled up to my tree, a sturdy red oak.  My trusty 12 gauge was set and ready to go. I was dressed for success in my best camo and outfitted with a fine plastic plunger call I knew would sound sweet to a tom’s ears.  Man I was ready!

After letting the woods settle for a few minutes I let go a series of calls on the plunger.  I carefully looked about, very slowly and listened intently to the song of the woods.  In doing so I noticed several large black morels tempting me with their corrugated flesh.  They would be mine along with a fat turkey, I thought.  I started daydreaming of how this day would end.

I let the plunger croak out its song again and repeated this every 20 minutes.  All the while just taking in the spring scent and soft colors of the woods around me.  I thought I heard something but was not sure.

Finally, during one set of calls I heard something moving distantly to my rear.  Of all the luck, I thought, the birds had circled around behind me!  I did not hear the sound for very long but I could tell it was not too close but it sounded like it was moving in my direction.  I waited quietly for a long time; soon I only heard the spring frogs and their chorus. Not hearing anything at all resembling a turkey, no calls and no crunchy grass, I decided it was safe to try and call again.  So I let go with the plunger.

Again, I heard something behind me so I froze.  I waited, listening for some kind of reply from a turkey.  Nothing was happening, it had stopped moving so I called again a few minutes later.  Again I heard the noise, something was coming right towards me!  Now my curiosity was getting to me.  I had to look.  Up until this point I had not turned around at all in fear of spooking the tom I was after.  So as slowly and carefully as I could, I turned around to look over my shoulder and around the tree behind me.

There was nothing there, nothing, just grass and more trees!  I was mystified, no crunching grass, no nothing.  I know I heard something!  I scanned very carefully for a minute and faced forward again and waited.  All was quiet except for some songbirds and the friendly frogs.  So I let the plunger call sound again.

Crunch, crunch I could hear it moving again behind me.  I could hear something approaching through the dry old grasses.  What could it be, an invisible turkey?  The sound stopped and I slowly turned and looked again.  I saw nothing; there was nothing there!  Now I was starting to think I had not had enough coffee this morning.  I sat there very confused and looked around some more but stayed seated.

After a time I began to call again and AGAIN heard something moving in the grass and it was coming towards me.  I decided to keep calling and did not look this time.  I could hear it moving and getting closer and closer.  One’s hearing gets pretty sensitive while tuned to the woods and I finally decided this “thing” was right on me and NOW was the time to take a look at what the heck was there.  I had my shotgun clenched tightly and slipped the safety very quietly.  The grass was still crunching and I knew it was still coming.  I could not take the suspense anymore.

So I swung my barrel around to meet this elusive beast that crept through the grass towards me.  I felt like I was in slow motion I was so focused, the woods swirled in blurred shades of ambers and greens.  As I swung around I was looking and did not see anything, no turkey, no nothing until I looked down into the long brown grass. I gasped at what I saw!  It was a very big Blanding’s turtle.   A female all black and yellow spotted with her bright yellow throat staring back at me with my shotgun pointed over her head.  She puffed her throat and gave a hiss shrinking back into her shell. I never laughed so hard in my life.  I set my gun down and picked the befuddled turtle up to admire her size.  No wonder the dry grass made so much noise.  But why was she following the sound of a turkey call?  I will never know.  I set her down and watched her tumble her way through the glade in a hurried pace to get away from the thing that picked her up. 

When she was out of sight I packed up to go in for lunch.  I was still laughing at the result of my hunt.  I gathered my pack and walked up ahead to collect the morels I had seen and noticed a narrow well-worn and muddy trail, which had only been 20 yards away.  From my seated position I could not see it in the long grass.  It came up from the swamp I had walked through and continued on through the glade in front of my position and back into the thick woods.  What caught my attention were the distinct impressions I saw in the mud.  The hair raised some on the back of my neck at what I saw.  Bear tracks, a set of two of a sow and cub.  They were very fresh.  I picked my mushrooms and carefully found my way back to the camp.

Ann Horsman © 2003