Yesterday while hunting spring gobblers in Franklin County, I witnessed something I have heard about but never seen...a coyote attacking a hen decoy. I had heard two gobblers before dawn and set up near the closer one.
Putting out a decoy, I had made a series of hen yelps and jake kee kees with no response from either of the toms. Suddenly out of the corner of my left eye, I espied a coyote take a flying leap onto the decoy. The attack knocked over the stake and the bogus hen collapsed under the weight of the coyote.
Immediately upon landing, however, the coyote realized that the prey was not real and departed in the same direction he had come. I once observed a red-tailed hawk attack the same Flambeau decoy while on a hunt in Tennessee, but the violence of that attack paled in comparison to this one.
I am undecided on whether or not to use a decoy again this spring. This is the second time a coyote has come in to the fake bird.
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