COZAD, Neb. -- For the second morning in a row, we watched an estimated 400 wild turkeys leave their roosts and walk away.

Gary Howey and I were hunting private land about 20 miles north of Cozad. I had a fall turkey license, which allows you two birds, and Gary was carrying a deer license.

The turkeys, we had been told, would leave the roost and mill around the small farm pond where we were set up.

Wrong.

For reasons known only to turkeys they had changed their pattern.

We had been there before dawn both days, but these birds liked to sleep late. They left the trees about 8:10 each morning. Till then, the tree talk of these winter-bunched turkeys echoed across the canyons.

“There they go,” Gary said, disappointment coloring his voice.

“I’m going to try calling,” I answered.

I popped a single reed diaphragm call into my mouth and began a loud series of yelping. I kept it up nonstop and watched as more turkeys began disappearing over the hill about 600 yards away.

And then a strange thing happened.

About eight hens turned and began running back down the hill in our direction. And then they flew aways and then ran again. Then they flew again and ran again.

I just kept calling as loud and as fast as I could.

When they were 50 yards away, I shut up and they continued to walk in.

I had really wanted to shoot a tom, but beggars can’t be choosers. When the biggest hen closed the distance to 25 yards, my 12 gauge spoke and the bird dropped.

Thanksgiving dinner was guaranteed. And, with Gary on the camera, the whole unbelievable thing was recorded.

The next day we bumped into a group of toms and I was able to bag one of them to fill my fall tag.

The deer, however, were another matter. Unharvested corn surrounded the two or three square miles of rugged canyons and rangeland where we were hunting. The whitetails were there.

Most of the deer we saw were mulies and there were good numbers of them.

The big bucks, however, were hard to approach, and we never did get close to one, although we hiked those hills for four days. We could have taken several smaller bucks but elected not to do that.

With temperatures pushing into the 50s each afternoon, it was just a great time to be in the outdoors.