The 2011 turkey harvest was above the 2010 harvest and almost identical to the good harvest achieved in 2009, and despite poor production this past spring in many areas, the outlook for 2012 is good across the state.
Portable hunting blinds are a great asset to turkey hunters. They hide a hunter’s movement which very much helps when that gobbler hangs up and surveys the situation. I use them all the time for both turkey hunting and deer hunting.
I had one of those chair blinds that are very nice, easy to carry around and to set-up. I would leave it out after deer season and use it for the turkeys. These blinds generally have zipper pockets to keep things in and even cup-holders. I noticed that wrens like to use the cup holder to build a nest in and sometimes would take advantage of an open pocket if I had not zipped it up. The chair portion of the blind rotted away after a couple of seasons of not storing it properly and so I combined it with a tripod stand we have set-up on land that we hunt.
The blind fit perfectly over the tripod chair and inside the rails of the stand. I forgot however to zip the pockets and so this past deer season my son Ruffin called me about 8 a.m. one morning during his deer hunt. He told me that when he climbed in the tripod prior to daylight something was in the blind climbing all around and on him. He finally discovered a critter that he described as being somewhat squirrel like with big eyes and a short tail.
He had never seen a flying squirrel before but now he was seeing one up close and personal. He said it had a nest in the open pocket. A few days later I went to evict the critter from its den, there are plenty of cavity trees for these animals to nest in; when I was climbing up the ladder I saw the squirrel come out of the nest and jump on the tree. As I began removing the nest material a small blind baby flying squirrel came out squeaking and the mama squirrel scampered back into the blind.
I put the baby and material back into the pocket and told mama she could remain in her den until the young ones were weaned. I then put up a ladder stand under the tripod so we would not disturb her with our deer hunting. If you use these portable blinds be sure to keep the pockets zipped or else you too may have an uninvited guest in the blind with you one morning.
