Posted By: bebo33
Crazy morning at Cahaba WMA - 04/18/17 10:09 AM
Get in my new spot and like normal no birds gobbled at sunrise. I never made a sound and just listened. About 630 I walk down a gas line with some small pine trees about chest high growing along the edge and thick enough to provide some cover. I place a couple of hen decoys out on a small rise thinking if a gobbler crosses above or below me he will be able to see them from both directions. I start with soft purrs soft clicks and soft yelps and wait. The area had several trails zig zagging through it with black berry bushes blooming here and there somewhat thick for me to walk through but not so thick for other critters. About an hour later I get a little louder with my yelps on a box call and SERIOUSLY no more than a few yards from where I had sat down in those chest high pines something big and really close took off off running. I jump up like WHAT THE ??? was that. It ran opposite of the gas line down hill behind me in the thick stuff. I jump up and run toward the sound to get a shot at what I thought might be a gobbler. It wasn't! I saw a huge puffed out tail thought it was a fox. It stopped on a little rise and turned its head back toward me looking at me and then bolted off. It was a coyote! There were several stumps where trees had been cut and I jumped up on one of those for a better view, as I step off the stump about two feet from my foot was a very long black snake. Immediately jumped back and tripped over the stump. Get up and notice its head isn't triangular shaped and relax knowing now it's not poisonous. It started vibrating its tail but it didn't have any rattles on it but the dry leaves around it made a chchchchc sound. Didn't take me about 30 seconds to grab my decoys and vacate that area. Usually I get this feeling like a gut feeling when I'm being watched or something isn't quite right about a situation. I never knew that coyote was there or that snake. I never heard it coming through and never felt uneasy until I actually got back to the truck and realized how bad that could have been. I think I may start hunting with a partner the rest of the season. For safety sake.