Swamp turkeys comin' to camp

[Swampstalk]

My son and some buddies recently purchased a hunt camp in Everglades country. First trip out visiting the sellers over breakfast two nice bucks came in. Since then we've set up a camera or two. Got turkeys coming in along with deer, crows and rabbits, and squirrels. The below hen began giving black Fox squirrel the "What for" when it was coming too close to her breakfast. Another mother with a few poults.

[guesswho]

Cool. We have a few of the black fox squirrels around here too.

[Swampstalk]

They are pushy. We had all three color phases on one picture recently. Black, Brown, and a mixed color one chasing a gray squirrel away from the corn. More fun watching the bucks dancing around the Fox squirrels though.

Had a lightening strike hit a 40ft pine tree next to the camp house. It arced over to the VHF radio antenna attached to the cleaning station and go through the coax cable into the house and blow the radio, a cell phone booster, microwave, degrade a could ACs, and blew several lights. All this happen while my son and the two previous owners were eating dinner under a cook shed. They said in over 30 years of having the camp it had never happened at the camp before. Think they all had to change their pants afterwards!

[ncturkey]

Very cool. That would be awesome to own your own land in Florida.

[Swampstalk]

Mike,

There are camps for sale throughout Florida periodically. Occasionally one of the inholdings camps, which are usually 2.5 to 5 acres come up for sale within the Big Cypress National Preserve (where my son's camp is) which is next to Everglades National Park. These inholding camps are left over from when the National Park Service began management of the BCNP, which was the first National Preserve created by Congress in the early 1970s, which allowed hunting, among other things as traditional uses of the land. Progressive more restrictions as to accessing by swamp buggies, ATVs, closures, etc. have happened in more recent years. One camp for sale recently was some 14 miles off the main highway on some very rough trails, during the wet season can have 2 to 3 feet of water over them. Swamp buggies to the private camps is the only way, unless there was an airstrip created back in the day that a number of camps have in order to fly in.

There are camp opportunities, leases, etc. further north if one choses to explore them.

We have had some extreme experiences and great times, but we work for every animal we have ever harvested out there. But wouldn't trade it for anything!