Opening morning no birds, second morning 2 toms on property, third morning 1 jake , 2 toms and 5 hens, 1 black bear and several deer. Kind of neat watching a black bear forage a corn field at 5 am. I don't hear as many birds in the morning as other years. also working 10 hours planting corn, and hunting makes for a long day. Last fall during the bow hunt, the bird numbers were way down, and we had deep snow this winter. Other years we would see many more jakes. Seeing birds strutting on other properties that other people hunt.
Many toms are silent, and I've shot more without the decoys than with decoys. Makes the trek into the woods easier , carrying less gear. Calling without decoys if the tom is interested is by far the best method in my opinion. I've got one tom, bought a second tag and won't give up till the thermo-cell is dead. I've sat in a tree stand far longer for deer with no results.