Ozark Flowers to Feathers

Idon’t remember that much special about the first 24 springs of my lifetime. Just the same old childhood and family stuff of baseball, birthdays, and the occasional fishing trip, but starting with my 25th Missouri Springtime, that all changed.

The spring of 1983 marked my first Missouri Turkey harvest. I’d been trying for a couple of years prior to that unsuccessfully, but somehow that third season of trying on a beautiful late April morning, two gobblers happened to walk by while I was leaning on a tree soaking up some sun and admiring the blue Sweet Williams flowers sprouting from the fertile woodland soil right next to me. I’d been calling some, so I can claim I called them right to me, but I think it was just being out there and getting a little luck from the beautiful spring flowers smiling up at me.

Every spring since then, I’ve managed to spend at least a few mornings each spring admiring the flowers and chasing turkeys. Now I don’t claim to be the best turkey hunter in the woods, but I have killed my fair share of Missouri gobblers.

Every turkey hunter has heard about all the different springtime tactics and strategies. There’s running and gunning, staying put and waiting them out, putting the sneak on them, fanning a field strutter, giving them the silent treatment when they hang up, and posting up on a known strutting zone.

But have you heard about Ozark Flowers to Feathers?

It's a system I’ve used for the last several years and I can honestly say it’s always successful and enjoyable even when you don’t get the turkey. There are a few items that I think are essential to make your outing enjoyable whether the turkeys cooperate or not. The most important thing is a good pair of boots and a nice butt cushion to sit on, some camouflage clothing including a face net and gloves, your favorite shotgun, some water, and finally a sandwich or snacks. A nice sunny and warm springtime day also helps, especially around the midmorning nap time.

My tactic is mostly walking and sitting for about equal amounts of time while looking for those beautiful springtime wildflowers. You’ll be surprised how many times a turkey will just come right in while you’re peacefully admiring those flowers, especially if you sit still and have just let out a few seductive hen yelps.

A morning in the turkey woods for me goes kind of goes like this: I wake up early enough to be up on the ridge before daylight and listen to the sounds of the Missouri woods waking up. Hopefully, those sounds will include turkeys gobbling, but that doesn’t always happen, so you may only hear owls hooting, woodpeckers laughing, squirrel and deer moving through the leaves, warblers, chickadees, cardinals, mockingbirds, herons, crows, frogs, and toads singing while watching the sun rise upon the woodland.

If your lucky you may hear a Whip-poor-will or Chuckwill’s-widow singing. Sadly, those calls were way more common twenty years ago than they are now. I miss them. Often in the spring there’s an eerily half hour or so when a misty fog filters across the landscape adding another experience to a magical morning. After an hour or so I’ll start wandering slowly down the ridge and downhill towards the creek bottom. I’m walking slowly, trying to walk as quietly as I can while listening for any sound, especially turkey sounds and looking for the woodland wildflowers.

Bluebells growing in the creek bottoms are some of my favorites, and I usually spend another hour or so sitting, calling, and admiring the Bluebells. When the mood strikes me, I mosey back up the wooded hillside on the lookout for Yellow and Purple Violets, Dutchman’s Britches, Wake Robin, Shooting Star, Indian Paintbrush, Toothwort, Spring Beauty, and Trout Lily.

These small delicate wildflowers lift my spirits as I move slowly beneath and through the Missouri Dogwood trees in full bloom, another one of my favorites. I spy my next stopping point on a southerly, slightly sloping open Oak and Hickory woodland. I sit in a sunny spot. Leaning up against a big oak tree with some Sweet William in full bloom next to me and scratch out a few hen yelps on my slate call.

Fifteen minutes later, I doze off in the warm sunshine. A while later, I’m suddenly awakened by thunderous gobbling from the creek bottom below me. Wow, it worked again! I call a couple of more times and four rowdy jakes come walking in, gobbling and looking for the hen they heard. I watch them walk by at 20 yards and reflect on a successful morning.

Still sitting in the sunshine thirty minutes later, I see movement to my right. It’s a lone gobbler quietly sneaking in to check out the commotion it heard earlier. I raise my shotgun as he walks behind a tree, and when it emerges from the other side, my gun sounds and at 11:30 my morning hunt ends on a high note.

I’ve only traveled a mile or so in a big loop and the flowers have led me to another bunch of beautiful feathers.

Jeff Blystone