KERSEY – You could call Alex Vedrinski a modern day “Dr.
Doolittle.”
A national and world champion at turkey calling, Vedrinski was
the featured speaker on Saturday during the annual Elk Expo in
Kersey. He gave a seminar titled “Call of the Wild.”
“Everybody talks to each other … all the animals talk to each
other,” Vedrinski said. “When they make a sound, whether it’s a
feeding sound, a fighting sound, a lover’s sound, they all
communicate with each other.”
Vedrinski said he travels to call in various game as the seasons
change, noting he has one ability that was given to him by the
“maker upstairs” – mimicking the sounds of wild animals.
While Vedrinski is successful at hunting, he doesn’t take
anything by chance. He said there a lot of people that hunt deer,
turkey, waterfowl and elk but there are very few elk or deer
hunters that actually go out and make it happen.
“You could sit on a log and be like a toadstool and you could
shoot a limit of squirrels that come by you,” Vedrinski said. “Or,
you could sit over by that big majestic oak tree and when you’re
not sleeping and see that big buck over on the side you could shoot
it. But you sometimes have to wait for hours and hours and days and
days. And sometimes you only get one chance to harvest that
animal.
“What I like to do is talk to the animals; Dr. Doolittle and I
are good buddies …”
Vedrinski noted that whether you are in a rural area, farm
country, in New York City’s Central Park or on outskirts of
Pittsburgh, one of the first things you hear in the morning when
you wake up is crows. Vedrinski confesses that in the early summer
when he should be getting ready to mow the grass, he would rather
crow hunt.
He noted very few people hunt the bird and there used to be a
bounty on them (a quarter a head). After giving a crow call he
noted they are worse than chickens and roosters since they get up
before daylight.
The great horned owl is the arch enemy of crows and when a
distress call is sent out by one crow, all the others flock to the
area to fight with the owl.
Vedrinski also spoke about squirrels, saying “They always make
noise, they bark.”
He demonstrated a squirrel call, noting some people bang two
fifty cent pieces together for a call. He also imitated the sounds
of black, gray and cat squirrel sounds typical to different areas
of the country. A cork rubbed across a mirror (a compact) is an
inexpensive squirrel call.
In September, Vedrinski will serve as an elk-hunting guide on
the western slopes in the mountains of Colorado.
“Other than a gobbling turkey, there is nothing in the world
that you can explain how you can explain the sound of the bugle of
a bull elk. It’s hard to believe that the sounds that an elk makes
comes out of such a big animal like that. We expect grunts and
different calls like that but the bugle of a bull elk (a high
pitched call).”
Vedrinski said a grunt tube and a mouth diaphragm are used to
call in elk.
When October is just beginning and elk hunting is finished,
Vedrinski goes to Maine as a registered moose guide. He
demonstrated the call of a moose; he has a birch bark call made by
French Canadian. The modern new millennium moose call is just a
shoe string in a coffee can. The string is attached inside the
bottom of the can and hangs down through the bottom. Rubbing
downward on the string produces an inexpensive moose call.
Waterfowl season is next on Vedrinski’s schedule. He cannot go
home and do the usual chores around the house to prepare for
winter, he has to go out and talk to the ducks and geese.
Canada geese, not Canadian geese, just seem to be everywhere. In
northeastern Ohio there is a problem with the geese, which can nest
on dry ground.
“They can nest on golf courses, and where a goose goes nothing
grows …,” Vedrinski said. “I think the grass and the food that they
get in stays in their body about four and one half minutes. There
is nothing worse than walking where a goose has just been.”
Vedrinski said ducks also have several calls, including when
flying and a feeding chuckle to coax them in.
Vedrinski also touched on deer season, saying years ago hunters
didn’t have a deer call or even know a deer made a noise, and they
were successful.
Lastly, Vedrinski said while everybody wants to become a fox or
coyote hunter, hunters need to be careful.
“When you use a predator call (such as) a dying rabbit (or) a
squealing pig, now you are something to eat,” Vedrinski said. “And
they are hunting you and it’s totally different.”
Vedrinski said he uses a squeaker out of a toy to call in
predators, noting he’s thrifty and there isn’t a need to buy
expensive equipment for each hunt.
