Turkey hunting: ‘Unpredictable, interesting and frustrating’

A sight turkey hunters would like to see –– two big gobblers all fanned out within gun range.

Submitted photo

When the 2017 spring turkey season opened Monday morning, many hunters reported hearing lots of gobbles just before sunrise, but then the big birds kept silent.

Bob Morgan has hunted turkeys for more than 20 years and weighed in with his thoughts about opening day.

“Monday morning reminded me of a hunt several years ago when, days before the season opened, I heard toms gobbling all around my favorite hunting spot,” he said.

“However, on opening day there wasn’t a gobble to be heard. I knew the birds were there so, once again, patience was the key word. I waited for about an hour and then I saw two big toms slipping towards my hen decoy without making a sound. The unpredictable part of hunting turkeys makes it both interesting and frustrating.”

Since there have been several springs where the weather has hurt the production of turkeys, the number of two-year old birds is down –– there may not be as much gobbling as usual in some areas of the state especially in the northeast section. However, hunters in the Ozarks report hearing as many or even more toms this month.

Time will tell just how good the season will be, but Missouri’s reputation as a top turkey hunting state will remain. After the first two days of this spring season, hunters had taken 15,017 bearded birds with 12,875 of the total adult gobblers statewide –– with Vernon County harvesting 166.

Earth Day

Today marks the 47th anniversary of Earth Day with events scheduled across the country for all ages and interests. There are plenty of opportunities to get involved for those interested in doing their part to help improve the environment and the outdoor recreation we all enjoy.

The theme for this year is Environment and Climate Literacy.

The first Earth Day was April 22, 1970. Twenty years later, Earth Day went global with 200 million people in 141 countries lifting environmental issues onto the world stage.

Events ranged from a climate rally held in Washington D.C. to planting a tree in backyards. At Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kan., students wore organic cotton shirts for the day while stream clean-up was going in several places over the country.

This year more than 1 billion people in more than 195 countries will participate in making it the largest civic observance in the world. Other projects and events in the fields of energy, recycling, water and green schools were part of Earth Day activities.

“A good Earth Day project is recycling,” said Paul Mayfield, of Joplin. “There are too many garbage dumps, landfills and junk-yards in the country that are filling up with things that might have been reused, recycled or composted.”

Bob Walker, of Lee’s Summit, is another one that believes in recycling. “Several years ago, on Earth Day, I started recycling anything I could,” he said. “My wife told me yesterday that we have helped the earth by recycling toms of items that otherwise would have ended up in a landfill.

Walker continued: She is right. This year I told a couple of my neighbors about how they should start recycling to celebrate Earth Day and they agreed that they would.”

There are many very old computers that are rotting in scrap-yards leaking toxic chemicals into the ground. Earth Day is a reminder that action must be taken to reduce the amount of waste we produce.

The Earth Day Network’s National Green Schools Campaign aims to “green” all of the countries K-12 schools within a generation.

A school becomes “green” through a variety of means. By having more sustainable, energy-efficient, low resource-using school buildings and school yards which saves energy, reduces carbon emissions and saves money.

On this anniversary of Earth Day, as many events are going on throughout the country, Mayfield wisely suggested, “We all need to be ready to clean and green it up.”