Fall Birds - Surprise Bobcat Attack

During our last fall turkey hunt of the season we got quite the surprise when something happened that none of us had ever experienced. But before I get into those details, let’s recap the turkey hunt from a couple of weeks prior. A late fall snow storm had finally moved through Utah and the weather was warming up enough to melt the valley snow. With the forecast calling for sunny days for the week of Thanksgiving, my grandson and I quickly made a plan to venture out on a fall turkey hunt.

 fall turkey hunt 

  Gusting winds to 50 mph, thought tent was going to blow down

With gear packed we headed for the hills. The goal was to bag a Thanksgiving turkey or three; we had a total of three fall turkey tags between the two of us. We arrived at our destination at dark and were greeted with sleet and wind. We managed to get our tent set up about the time the sleet quit and right as the wind picked up and really began to howl. Sleeping was rough as the tent walls pummeled us during the night but luckily the wind quit right around 6:00 a.m., just in time for us to brave the 25 degree darkness of the morning.

 fall turkey hunt iwenthunting  turkeys flying from roost

          Found a few roosted in the cottonwoods                                 Turkey's beginning to fly down

Not far from where we camped there stood a grove of cottonwood trees so we decided to go plant ourselves near them in hopes that turkeys would be roosted nearby. And as it turned out our guess was right because just as it began to get light we could see the silhouette of a few turkeys in a not-too-far-off tree. Soon the turkeys began to call from the roost which caused quite a ruckus when another bunch of turkeys began to call from a roost somewhere just out of sight. Both bunches of turkeys continued calling back and forth which boosted our confidence as we figured that we’d likely be able to lure some of those birds to us.

 turkeys close-up 

                   Ended up with a big flock not far away, but then Daxton called them close!

After lots of vocalization between the two groups they finally began to fly from their respective roosts and met up as they landed relatively close to us. Daxton, emulating the sound of a hen turkey, began to call using only his voice. And it didn’t take long before the curious flock marched right toward our hiding spot. Once several turkeys were within range we made the decision to shoot and instantly had 3 birds down!

 rio grande fall turkey iwenthunting  with merriam's turkeys

        Doubled up with his 20 gauge                                         Filled all 3 tags quite quickly

Only a few short weeks later we got our chance to go after turkeys again. This time my youngest grandson, Cooper, would get the opportunity to go on his first ever turkey hunt. His dad Dallas held the only tag, but it was shaping up to be an exciting family event. On the first afternoon of our arrival we only had a brief amount of time to scout for turkeys before dark. And by the time we found turkeys they had already roosted for the night. However, the roosting tree we found was loaded with a significant number of roosted birds providing us with an ideal opportunity for the morning.

 turkeys in roosting tree, roosted turkeys 

                  Lots of roosted turkeys in this tree and nearby tree

That next day we were up before dawn and positioned semi-close to the roosting tree we had discovered the evening before. It wasn’t long before the turkeys began to fly down into the field in front of us, exciting! A couple birds flew past us at a very close range making it fun to watch Cooper experience the frenzied fly-down event.

 fall turkey hunt  turkeys flying from roost

              Another early morning fly-down                             Dallas was tempted to shoot one flying close

But now that all the birds were comfortably down on the ground feeding and huddled into a tight cluster the dilemma of singling out one specific bird became the challenge. We waited. Finally a lone turkey stood to the left of the flock so Dallas slowly took aim and smoked it! The blast was fatal but as the turkey flapped on the ground, that’s when it happened…out of the brush sprang a bobcat! Clearly the bobcat had been hiding in the brush and was planning on a turkey dinner when just yards away the serendipitous free meal suddenly began waving its wings as if to say come and get me -- the bobcat attacked!

 bobcat lurking in the nearby brush 

                 The flock was bunched up way too tight for a shot

Completely awestruck we watched the event unfold as we couldn’t believe our eyes! In that moment I was so caught off guard by the incident that I didn’t think to grab my phone to film. The cat blitzed toward the downed turkey until something else unexpected happened. Instead of flying, the entire flock turned in unison and bum-rushed the bobcat! This unexpected move by the flock caused the bobcat to glance over its shoulder, deviate from its pursuit until it was more focused on the feathered mass. Then the wildcat began to pace about in a sort of confused state for a minute or so, that was until the bluff charge was determined to be just that. Once the bobcat had had enough it beelined toward the lone turkey, snatched it up and began running away with our prize. Again, somewhat shocked by the incident it took until the bobcat had carried the turkey about 40 yards until Dallas decided to fire a shot in the general direction of the cat. At the blast, the bobcat dropped the turkey and scampered away into the brush. At that point we jumped up and hurried toward the turkey. We had gone about 20 yards before the protective flock finally flew. I was amazed to see how protective the flock was for one of their own, especially with both feline and human predators lurking about.

 bobcat attacked just before this picture 

                    Group pic with Cooper and his souvenir turkey feather!

The sun was still 10 minutes from peeking over the horizon but we were done, another exciting and successful hunt!