Year: 2024

By Jim Monteleone

I love the outdoors and all its creatures. There are days in the fall when I carry a bow and others when a firearm is the tool of choice. Then there are other days when I carry a Canon. Not a cannon but a Canon. It is a digital camera that offers me the opportunity to shoot quietly and use many of the skills that define success for a hunter.

There is stealth involved and there is a steady hand needed for clear and sharp images. I treat the shutter button much in the same way as I do the trigger on a firearm.

No Limit

The beauty of photography is the many targets we can encounter as well as the absence of a limit, like those that govern hunting with something other than a camera. I choose to hone and refine the skills I have acquired over decades of hunting upland birds, mammals and waterfowl. Now the quarry is as varied as hummingbirds, butterflies, songbirds, reptiles and anything that flies, swims or walks. I have the freedom and the access to creatures of all sizes, and a myriad of places in which to pursue them. I have carried my camera to faraway places like British Columbia one week and to my back yard or a local park the following week.

Developing Patience

“Hunting” with a camera requires the same commitment to scouting, stalking and sometimes remaining motionless for long periods of time. In other scenarios being very quiet and inching your way to within mere feet in order to cut the distances between the lens and the subject is an absolute requirement.

My standard equipment, until recently, has been a Canon T3i with either a 55/200mm or 75/300mm lens. These set ups require a maximum distance somewhere between 5 feet and 35 yards for optimum results. The challenges of capturing really good pictures include learning and knowing the habits and habitat of birds, insects, animals, and reptiles.

Lighting is Key

The use of light is a key component. I generally attempt to keep the sun light behind me and on the subject(s). I also choose to shoot in manual focus even on moving subjects. It takes practice, but the principles of wing shooting have allowed me to overcome the technical difficulties associated with animals and birds with explosive flight and retreat instincts. Allow for a wider frame to capture movement and swing the camera through the action without stopping until the shutter has been activated.

My inspiration for long hours and long walks is the desire to bring vivid images of both simple and exotic creatures in their native habitat to those who appreciate nature. My reward is the expressed appreciation by nature enthusiasts for the images and the funds raised in donations of my photography to events that benefit children’s and veteran’s charities.

There is nothing quite so exciting!

By Tony Young

My interest in hunting the quirky-moving, nervous-acting, but beautifully colored wild turkey was piqued about 15 years ago by an old high school friend and bandmate of mine, Todd Bevis.

Todd’s a turkey-hunting fanatic if I’ve ever seen one, and the excitement in his voice that’s apparent every time he tells a hunting story played a big part in my getting the fever to experience spring turkey hunting.

My former in-laws owned a nice tract of land in northern Franklin County with a half-mile of deep creek frontage on a major tributary of the Apalachicola River. Over the years, I enjoyed deer hunting there and took a few fall turkeys, but bagging a good long-beard in the spring takes a bit more skill.

I was ready to learn how to call in and harvest my first spring gobbler.  All I needed was the know-how, and I figured I could get that from Todd and from watching Saturday and Sunday morning hunting shows on TV.

Todd encouraged me to get a box call because he said it would be the quickest and easiest call for me to learn – and the spring season was approaching fast.

He taught me how to do some basic yelps and a single-note cluck and said if I had birds on the property that had really never been called to before, and – if I could sit still long enough – I just might be able to call one in.

But Todd warned me, “Don’t make the mistake some people do in calling too much. Let ’em know you’re there, but let ’em come to you – less is more.”

With that advice in mind, I set out early opening day. I needed to get there a half-hour before first light so I could set my three decoys in place and get situated.

Sunrise wasn’t until 7:45 a.m., so I had about 30 minutes before the sun’s first rays would begin to illuminate the longleaf pine and palmetto flatwoods I’d be hunting.

It was a brisk north Florida spring morning, but as dawn gave way to late morning I knew the weather would warm up and it wouldn’t take long for those pesky, deep-woods mosquitoes to come out of the swamps and start buzzing around my ears. I quickly sprayed myself down with an ample dose of bug spray.

While carrying a jake and two hen decoys in one hand, I toted my shotgun, camo seat cushion and small flashlight in the other and made my way in the dark down a trail that weaved through a patchwork of saw palmettos toward a spot where I often saw turkeys.

The setup was near one of my favorite deer stands, on a ridge that jutted out between a creek and a ravine. It was where turkeys roosted most every evening amid juniper, tupelo and cypress trees hanging over the water.

Before I could even finish setting up my decoys, the sounds of gobbling echoed in the darkness from the creek bottom below. The strange vocalization of three, maybe four, birds was something I’d never heard, and it fascinated me.

I picked out a large pine tree to lean back against to hide my silhouette. Then I used a pair of hand pruners and began to snip some of the surrounding native vegetation of galberry and titi and used the clippings to construct my make-shift ground blind.

I settled in against the tree – my gun across my legs and my box call in my lap – and the sound of gobbling continued to fill the otherwise quiet predawn.

At 7 a.m. it started to get just light enough to see. As I sat facing the hardwoods of the ravine and creek swamp, I could make out my decoys 10 steps in front of me.

About 15 minutes later, when the visibility was noticeably better, I picked up my box call and made my first yelp to make those gobblers think there was an interested hen nearby.

A reassuring gobble answered me right away!

I was so excited I couldn’t believe it – a gobbler actually had responded, just like on those hunting shows.

“What am I supposed to do now?” I wondered. I remembered Todd telling me not to call any more often than about 15 minutes. So I sat quietly in anticipation for what seemed to be the longest 15 minutes of my life, but when I glanced down at my watch, only five minutes had elapsed. After another five minutes of real time had passed, I couldn’t stand it any longer and made another call.

Another gobble immediately followed, but this time it was louder.

This bird actually was coming to me! My first spring turkey hunt was beginning to play out in textbook fashion.

I sat just as still as I could be for another 10 or 15 minutes and called out for a third time.

The “GOBBLE, GOBBLE, GOBBLE, GOBBLE” reply sounded like it was being screamed into my ears. This Eastern turkey was right on top of me!

I couldn’t see him, but he had to be just out of my sight behind the brushy terrain.

A few moments later, the longbeard stepped out from behind a galberry thicket in full strut, and my heart starting pounding. I couldn’t see its legs because gold, iridescent feathers were covering them, but the bird seemed to glide like an apparition as it cautiously made its way toward the decoys.

The way its head was changing colors from red to blue and back again, and the show this gobbler was putting on, was truly a sight to behold. Now I realized what Todd’s and so many other turkey hunters’ infatuation was all about.

Its instinctive, ritualistic courtship dance was so beautiful I almost didn’t want to end it, but the big tom was getting too close, and I knew I’d better take the shot soon for fear he’d spy me.

The opportunity to raise my 12-gauge pump shotgun came when he went behind a palmetto clump at 12 steps, and I fired just one shot when he stepped out the other side.

What a rush!

It was my first spring gobbler, and it had a 9-inch beard. Now what was so hard about taking a spring turkey, I thought?  After all, it was only 8 a.m., and I already had my then daily bag limit after calling just three times.

But like every turkey hunter knows, spring turkey hunting rarely happens that way. Maybe it was beginner’s luck, but whatever it was –

I have been hooked ever since.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission has adopted innovative conservation tools and strategies, focusing on incentives for private lands and fish/wildlife management.  Strategies may include enhancing partnerships, incentives, and streamlining regulations.  The FWC’s Community Relations Office produces several feature columns each month.  Each column focuses on a specific element of Florida’s fish and wildlife resources or type of outdoor recreation.

To learn more about Florida Hunting and Fishing, visit: http://myfwc.com.

Mentoring, First-Time Turkey Hunting, Sharing the Outdoors

I don’t recall exactly when I started deriving more pleasure from game shot by others, than from animals I bagged myself.  I suppose it was inevitable that the switch to proxy hunting would begin with the wild turkey, whose pursuit offers rewards too abundant and varied for one person to enjoy properly.  The current 2016 spring turkey season is a good example.

You might think that Missouri’s three-week turkey season would be enough for any sensible person, but turkey hunters are not a sensible lot.  Most of the hunters I know extend the fun by scouting birds they plan to hunt days or weeks before opening day.  I started this year’s turkey season a week before opening day, shadowing a tight-lipped gobbler that had been roosting with five hens about a quarter mile southwest of my back door.  His presence was indicated as much by history as by observation.  His voice had only wafted through my open bedroom window twice, but the biggest, baddest gobbler in our area always roosts in that spot.  A gobble or two was all I needed by way of confirmation.

Old gobblers are choosy.  The long-standing roost near my house has offered a long line of big toms multiple fly-down options: three pastures, a tiny forest clearing and oak-hickory forest, plus dense cedar thicket.  It has something for every combination of weather and mood.

The backyard gobbler’s mood the week before opening day was taciturn.  With all those hens around him, he had little reason to gobble other than pride, which old toms are keenly aware goeth before a fall.

Nevertheless, I had him pegged.  He and his hens were on an unusual pattern.  Thanks to the fact that my neighbor had cattle in all three pastures that ordinarily were the landing strips for the birds.  With dozens of large ungulates cluttering their runway, the yard birds were flying down into the woods and heading north through the woods directly behind my house.

This couldn’t have been better.  Thinning and periodic burning have kept my 5-acre oak-hickory wood lot open and uncluttered by undergrowth.  You can see pretty well from one end to the other, with the exception of declivities between minor ridges.

Opening morning found me snuggled against the trunk of a red oak 50 yards from my back door.  My ghillie suit rendered me virtually invisible.  I have never owned such outlandish garb before this year, but I also have never before hunted turkeys with a crossbow.  I thought I could use the added edge if I was going to be poking a 2X4 up to shoot (I could have used a ground blind, but that violates my personal definition of fair chase unless I’m teaching a wiggly kid to hunt).

A light ground fog shrouded the tree trunks at dawn and my bird issued his first challenge at 5:48 a.m., precisely as he had done the previous morning.  He was on the ground by 6:20, and he and his entourage came straight to my calls.  I know he wasn’t merely following the hens, because his was the first head to appear over the slight rise 25 yards in front of me.  I had him dead to rights, but I was holding out for a jake.

“What?!” You might be thinking.  Here is where the proxy hunting comes in.  This particular tom is the only active gobbler in the area where I have permission to hunt around home.  I’m saving him for my son-in-law, Major Dwight O. Smith, U.S. Army-Retired.  The “Retired” part is brand new – like two weeks ago.  After multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, Dwight left his band of brothers for civilian life.  Naturally, I’m grateful for his service, but I’m doubly grateful that my daughter’s husband will be with her, out of harm’s way – or at least as much as you can be out of harm’s way with Beth!

So the yard bird is safe, at least until Dwight finds time between selling a home in Virginia, buying one in Kansas City and starting a new job and come to central Missouri to hunt.  In the meantime, if a jake is foolish enough to respond to my calls, he will become dinner when Dwight visits, but, given the relative scarcity of birds around home, that probably won’t happen.

Fortunately, I have another proxy-hunting option.  More than 20 years ago, I met a young man who needed an outdoor mentor.  His family are fine folks, but they don’t happen to be interested in hunting and fishing.  Scott Gerlt was more than interested.  He was obsessed.  I knew the symptoms from my own youth.  So Scott and I became hunting partners.  On balance, I’m sure to have benefited more from our relationship than he has.  Not only have I rediscovered the excitement of first-time outdoor experiences through Scott’s eyes, I now have someone who can teach me about fly fishing.  More important, he calls me and gets me to go do things I wouldn’t do on my own.

As the first weekend of turkey season approached, Scott called and asked if I wanted to hunt with him.  I did.  But since I was saving my yard bird for Dwight, I did something I wouldn’t have done otherwise.  I called friends in southern Cole County and asked if Scott and I could hunt their 400 acres of prime habitat.  “Come on down,” they said.

Tom and Susie Schulz have carried on the work her father, groundbreaking quail biologist, Jack Stanford, had started on their farm.  They have made it a paradise for game from quail and woodcock to deer and turkey.  Unlike my home area, you can take your pick of gobblers to hunt at Tom and Susie’s farm.

Scott and I were there well before dawn, standing in a tunnel-like logging road, when the gobbling began.  We counted at least five toms sounding off from various compass points.  Picking the nearest one, we hot-footed it down the two-track to shorten the distance the gobbler would have to travel to meet us, and hopefully his untimely end.  We set up in a tiny clearing.

Our gobbler came to us in textbook fashion.  He moved perpendicular to a line between his roost and our calling until he hit the logging road, then turned our way.  We spotted him at about 70 yards, parading back and forth as if in a shooting gallery.  Both our hearts were thumping like trip hammers.  That part of the hunt never changes, never gets old.  What a thrill.

It took 30 minutes of judicious calling to break the gobbler loose and another 15 minutes to lure him another 30 yards down the path.  When the gobbler turned his back to show off his fan, I whispered to Scott to get his shotgun up.  “Don’t you want to shoot him,” he asked.  That’s Scott, always considerate. “No,” I whispered, “I’d rather see you shoot him,” which was the plain truth.  A well-placed 3-inch load of buffered No.  6 lead shot ended the gobbler’s earthly travail.  I’ve shot bigger gobblers, but I have never enjoyed a hunt more, except for the first birds I have helped other new hunters kill.

I was out in our back 40 this morning shadowing the yard bird.  The cattle are in a different pasture now.  The big tom has moved his base of operations, abandoning not only his travel route, but his roost as well.  Seems like the occupant of that roost does the same thing about this time every spring.  It makes hunting him next to impossible, due to topography, but I wouldn’t want Dwight’s first turkey hunt to be too easy.  He’d get the wrong idea about the sport and I have a feeling he will take to the challenge.

When he does shoot his first gobbler, I will commemorate the event with a First Turkey Certificate generated from the Missouri Conservation Department’s website.  I’ll probably be more proud of it than he is.

The message from the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism is a message that applies to turkey hunters across the country as turkey seasons open and run for about a month in multiple states at this time of year – Hunt Safely.

The Kansas Spring Turkey Season opened April 12 and is in full swing through May 31.  Reports from the field indicate that birds are plentiful and responding to hunters’ calls.  However, the tradition of spring turkey hunting, where the hunter hides in full camouflage while imitating the call of a hen, requires special safety consideration.

Turkey hunting can be excellent on state wildlife areas, as well as the nearly 250,000 acres of private land enrolled in the Spring Walk-In Hunting Access Program.  Hunters on public land must always assume other hunters are there, too.  Although hunting in Kansas is safer than playing golf, when you consider injuries per 100,000 participants, one tragic hunting-related accident is too many. A few simple precautions can help ensure you or another hunter don’t become a statistic.

First, NEVER wear the colors black, blue or red, the colors prominent on a tom turkey as it displays for a hen.  Set up to call with a good view in front and a tree wider than your shoulders at your back.  A shoulder-width tree to lean against will protect you if another hunter stalks in from behind.  If you see another hunter, whistle or call out; never wave or move, which could draw fire.  Always assume a sound you hear is another hunter, and act accordingly.  Many hunters will wear a fluorescent orange hat or vest when they walk out after hunting, or if they are successful, they may wrap an orange vest around their bird as they carry it out.  Hunting-related accidents during the spring turkey season are rare, but let’s keep it that way.

Another kind of hunter in the woods this time of year is hunting morel mushrooms and reports from the field indicate that hunters are finding them now.  It is legal to pick morels on state and federal public hunting land as long as they are kept for personal consumption.  Mushrooms collected on state and federal lands may not be sold commercially.  Spring Walk-In Hunting Access land is leased for hunting access only.  Morels found incidentally by turkey hunters on WIHA lands may be collected for personal use.  Mushroom hunters should assume they will encounter turkey hunters on public lands, but potential conflict can be minimized by hunting mushrooms mid-day. Most turkey hunters prefer to be in the woods at daybreak and are often calling it a day by mid-morning.

For more information on KDWPT, please visit www.kdwpt.state.ks.us. 

More about the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism: 

KDWPT employs approximately 460 full-time employees in five divisions: Executive Services , Administrative Services , Fisheries and Wildlife , Law Enforcement , Parks and Tourism.

Department History:

• 1905 – Fish and game laws were organized under the Kansas Fish and Game Department and implementation of a state law requiring a license to hunt.
• 1911 – The State Fish and Game Department was placed under the supervision of the University of Kansas Board of Regents
• 1925 – The Fish and Game Department was reorganized as the Kansas Forestry, Fish and Game Commission with three board members appointed by the Governor.
• 1927 – Commission was reorganized and was given approval to organize a warden service. Fishing licenses required of men 18-70.
• 1939 – Commission’s three-member board was abolished by the legislature and replaced by a six-member bipartisan commission appointed by the Governor
• 1943 – Legislature gives the commission full authority to set seasons and dates

• 1955 – The legislature and Gov. Fred Hall create the State Park and Resources Authority.
• 1960 – First Kansas boating laws enacted
• 1987 – Gov. Mike Hayden signs executive order merging the State Park and Resources Authority and Fish and Game Commission to create the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks
• 2011 – Gov. Sam Brownback signs executive order moving the Division of Tourism from the Department of Commerce to the newly renamed Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism