Fall TURKEY HUNTING

Wee-wee-wee, yawk-yawk-yawk! Wee-wee-wee, yawk-yawkyawk! I repeat this sound across the area with my mouth call. Almost immediately, I hear the same sounds reverberate from the Virginia mountainside above me. And shortly afterward, the calls erupt from the oak flat below me. Then, I hear the same sounds from both sides of me as well.

A half-hour earlier, I had scattered a flock of young turkeys, and after waiting quietly for 15 minutes at the bust site, I launched into the lost call of young turkeys, also known as the “kee-kee-run,” produced phonetically as at top. The bust had been an ideal one, as I’d been able to run down the mountainside into the gang of birds, scattering them in every direction.

Now, my biggest challenge will be to guess which birds will be the first to return, so I can sit facing them. If I guess right, the odds are astronomical that my wife, Elaine, and I will have Thanksgiving turkey on the wild side. If I guess wrong, the birds will come in from behind, and no shot will be possible. And the ensuing (the turkeys’ alarm note at not seeing the “bird” that’s