With the forecast of nighttime temps in the low 50s for the second weekend in June, I decided to take advantage of this cool morning to put out my deer mineral mix on some hunting lands here in West Central Mo. I prefer to have my mineral lick sites replenished by the first of May in an attempt to help the does with milk production and of course the bucks in their antler growth. This year my turkey hunting/guiding, trips to hunting grounds in Illinois and family vacations/trips have me running a little behind schedule. Rarely do I ever make a trip into the outdoors that I’m not amazed by some type of plant and/ or animals I encounter and this day would be no different.

As I was walking along a wheat field heading to a stand site in a block of timber, I thought that I heard the sound of a distant gobble. I didn’t give it much attention, but of course had my ears a little more focused on listening for that glorious sound. Shortly I had recognized enough gobbling that I had to stop and attempt to pinpoint the direction of this bird. My first thought was that maybe one of the families who live close by had a new "pet," but as I stood there listening it didn’t take long to realize it was not coming from the direction of a home place, nor was it just one turkey. Birds were sounding off almost constantly now and from three different locations. I could tell that they were on the other side of the wood lot, out around some bean fields. As I slipped out to the opposite edge of the woods I began seeing birds out in the field and I continued to hear multiple birds gobbling, five different birds to be exact. In the field I was watching were two large toms strutting and gobbling, with two hens staying right with them. There were also three other hens about 75-yards from that group. This location has three large bean fields separated by tree rows and I could hear two toms in the field to the East, which were doing the most gobbling and occasionally a bird would gobble in the field to the West also. For 30 minutes I watched the courtship and couldn’t believe this much breeding related activity was still happening the second weekend in June. I still wonder if there was actually any breeding going on or just a couple of hens enjoying the show those two old toms were putting on. I didn’t slip around to either of the other fields to see if those toms had hens with them too, but they did a lot of steady gobbling until 7:30 that morning. Shortly after 8:00 as I left the area I drove to a location where I could view the center field, and the field to the East, and could see two toms in each of those fields still strutting. After mentioning this to fellow outdoorsmen this week they told me of toms they had seen out strutting in other parts of the state this week.

That morning I also enjoyed seeing lots of fawn tracks around the water holes in a creek that runs through the wood lot. Now I just need to get a camera up in the creek to get a look at the youngsters and of course hopefully a picture of a nice buck or two. It’s those simple signs of new young deer in the area and the surprise of animal actions that keeps me yearning for more time each year to spend enjoying all the amazing things happening in our fields and forests.