CT Fall Turkey opener

October 2 was the Fall firearms turkey opener here in CT and with the much need rain finally gone and some great early October weather on tap for the opener I must say I was a little excited.  I wasn't able to get out until the afternoon so I headed out to a piece of state forest near my house that I used to hunt during small game seasons of past.  This little piece of State land reminds me me of a area down in the Delaware Water Gap in NJ where we hunt and seeing I couldn't make it down there for the Archery opener this would have to do.  

With all the rain and wind we had the past 3 days I knew any sign that I found would be fresh so I decided to run the trails looking for scratchings while doing a little calling here and there.  I started out on a trail that would take me north from one of our duck swamps up into the rocky ridge tops.  I love to get up on these ridge tops and run them out while looking over the forest below.  These ridge tops and rocky outcrops offer a great view and it allows me to cover plenty of ground with my eyes instead of my feet.   We have an amazing acorn crop this year and even with the damp leaves it was hard to be quiet because of them.  It's bad enough that all these acorns make it seem like you are walking on marbles, but it's worse when they crack under foot.

I covered plenty of ground and not a hint of turkeys to be found.  Matter of fact there wasn't much sign of anything at all.  Very little deer sign, a few tracks and scat no scrapes or rubs to be seen.  I thought for sure after all this rain the animals would be out and about but nothing.  Oh well it was a great early fall afternoon to run around the woods.

Here are a few interesting facts about the Eastern Wild Turkey.  The Eastern Turkey can be found in 38 North American states with the farthest Western state being Washington.  There are approximately 5,000 to 6,000 feathers covering a turkey's body.  The Eastern Wild Turkey can run up tot 25mph and fly as fast as 55mph.  There is plenty of information on wild Turkeys on the NWTF website.

Sunday morning I decided to go check out another swamp to scout it out for the upcoming duck season so I loaded up the dog and off we went.  There wasn't much water out in the swamp at all and no ducks to be found so seeing Hannah was having fun I decide to walk the old logging roads looking for sign and it didn't take long to find some.  Found plenty of scrapes and rubs along with some beds.  There had to be at least 20 scrapes in this tiny little area already and the majority were fresh.  I worked the scrape line to get a good bead on it just in case I decide to sneak back in with the bow.  On the way home from our scouting trip I stopped at the lake to get Hannah some water work and then home to give her a bath.  Great way to spend the morning.

A few more pictures from the past two days.