lone hen

Was mushroom hunting and generally just tooling around in my woods yesterday with my son. We spooked a lone hen out of a Mayapple patch. Scared the begeezes outta us actually. She let us get with in a few feet before she came up. I was expecting to find a nest. I looked briefly but didn't see one. I didn't want to spend a whole lot of time so as not to disturb her any more than we did.

So what's everyone think was it there and I didn't find it or was she hunkered down and just was waiting to let us pass ?