BARNEVELD — As spring began to unfold, it was hard to overlook the flurry of activity in Wisconsin's woods.
 
With eyes toward spotting all that nature could unveil, I pondered whether I could — heading out on a turkey hunt — note and chronicle it? Or would my carrying a shotgun promote the kind of tunnel vision that leads to stepping upon morels, failure to notice sapsuckers drilling into birches and, well, missing out on clues that turkeys were in the vicinity?

Armed with my camera, notebook, pen, shotgun and turkey calls, I set to find out on a mission during the first five-day spring turkey season.

Well before sunrise, hunters traipse toward distant gobbler vocalizations. Sometimes they walk under roost trees without noticing a perched bird until it flushes and crashes small limbs — trying to fly before its time. Or those people don't notice there are flowers up in the maples, aspens, birches and open-grown oaks.

On dry, windy days, dead limbs, with their bark long gone, mimic sounds of many woodland animals or other disturbances.

I heard them all on my recent trips during Period A.

In a deciduous woods, miles from water, wood ducks flew overhead.

I was struck by one thought: Ring-necked pheasants, crowing at 5:23 a.m., are one of the best locator calls. Crow calls, owl hooters and pileated woodpecker calls are all for purchase, but give me a pheasant call and I'll expect to get a gobbler to sound off from his roost. Still better might be a pet coyote, trained to bark on command.

Then I was struck by another: Shotgun blasts from distant hunters are most numerous, by my count, on Wednesdays and lessen considerably as Sunday — the period's end — approaches.

After an inch of rain fell recently, it was obvious that 5 a.m. was too late to see what had been moving about in the woods. There were deer tracks everywhere, leaves were overturned from their quick turns, sliding stops and over-log leaps.

But one lone deer lingered to scratch his ear with his hoof.

Before the sun lightened the sky, nearly everything was in black silhouette — a black-capped chickadee or a mourning dove. The calls of the Canada geese and sandhill cranes proved unmistakable.

There was spring green about. Unfortunately, the most notable chlorophyll were exotic, invasive plants, including bright green garlic mustard leaves. Multiflora rose and autumn olive were breaking bud, too.

Near the aliens, pussytoes, a member of the aster family, were in full bloom.

A grove of 30 red maples had, over the years, lost a battle with bucks rubbing their antlers. A fallen black oak log was host to a sulphur fungus last autumn. That was something to note for August.

By Saturday I could feel myself losing focus. Hunting turkeys was winning over chronicling woodland events.

I walked out of the basement, shotgun slung over my back and vest filled with gear. I headed toward the first gobble. A closer gobbler pulled me east instead. I realized I had left my camera on a basement bench, but I trudged ahead anyway. Another sign I had lost focus of my five-day mission.

A gobbler pitched down from his roost at 5:45 a.m., displayed, spitt and drummed, and then waited for five hens to join him.

Two coyotes appeared, first one at 20 yards, then one at 10 yards. Both had tunnel vision, noses locked on the earth, focused on hunting not their surrounding. It wasn't until the first one crossed my scent path that it bolted northeast. The second followed.

Tunnel vision can be a dangerous thing for a coyote or a turkey hunter. Had I switched to hunting coyotes, these canids would have been dead, but there are too many moles, field mice and shrews in the area to mess with that food chain.

In the end, I filled my notebook.

When I hunt during periods E and F, I just may put shells in my shotgun.

TURKEY TIME

WHAT: Wisconsin's spring turkey season, consisting of six five-day periods running Wednesdays through Sundays.

WHEN: Period A has concluded and Period B wraps up today; Period C is this week; Period D is May 7 to 11; Period E is May 14 to 18; and Period F is May 21 to 25.

FOR INFORMATION: Go to www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/caer/cs/springturkey/