Turkey Reports

[charlie elk]

The birds are out feeding, strutting with scattered gobbling and fights. The hens are showing no real interest in the toms. The ticks are terrible already time for permethrin clothing treatments and Frontline on the dog.
Mosquito are out along the swamp edges and flies are thick nearly everywhere. Turkeys are focusing on bugging, they don't seem to be wasting any time scratching for old mast or ag residue.
If all this eating keeps up there are going to be some heavy gobblers killed this spring.

[charlie elk]

In spite of the rain all week the turkeys have remained active and are continuing the spring break up. The toms are doing more strutting but it appears to be for each other, the hens are going about their business paying the toms no attention.

[putt]

From the March 29 WDNR Outdoor Report weekly email (& website at http://dnr.wi.gov/news/or/ ) :

"The recent record warm temperatures across the state and region have resulted in a large number of early records for bird migration and this week early nest records were reported for killdeer and wild turkey, both species weeks ahead of a typical nest initiation date."

Man it's going to be a long wait till my hunting period.

[charlie elk]

Man it's going to be a long wait till my hunting period.

Ditto that. Can't remember which season you start in, I start with B and then at least one tag in each season somewhere in the state.

A hunter has to wonder where that WDNR Outdoor Report applies.

You'll be happy to know the turkeys in unit 1,3,& 4 are not nesting nor will they be anytime before their usual time. According to every study I've seen and read or reread this spring photoperiodism controls when nesting takes place not temperatures. If anyone knows a different study I would love to read it, especially since there is nothing to hunt yet.

Because the weather has been so nice Vic & I've spent a lot of time out there even more than usual and have not found a single nesting hen. the hens appear to be ignoring the gobblers. Most of the gobbler's strutting appears to be directed at each other rather than the hens. When the hens leave the the gobblers are not following yet. Rather they continue strutting & gobbling at each other.

Unlike last year I've found no widespread turkey die offs which leads me to think the harvest this year will be good & have more jakes in it than usual. Last year's hatch seems to have had a high survival rate. With all the tags burning holes in my pocket I'll have no problem taking some jakes this spring; Mrs elk prefers recipe jakes to long beards.
Besides by the time the later turkey seasons get here there is going to be so much leaf cover we'll be lucky to see the red head let alone the beard.

[WillowRidgeCalls]

According to every study I've seen and read or reread this spring photoperiodism controls when nesting takes place not temperatures.

That's correct Charlie, even though we've had some warm temps this spring the birds are still flocked up, as of yesterday. There was a flock of 52 birds in a hayfield, but they are starting to move around a lot better and will soon bust up into small groups. The Toms are starting to strut but they are still in the pecking order displays, they are not strutting for the hens yet. Next weekend for the youth hunt should be a good one with the birds starting to chase the hens around, and you should be able to call in groups of birds, which will make the hunt interesting. It should be another good one.

[putt]

You'll be happy to know the turkeys in unit 1,3,& 4 are not nesting nor will they be anytime before their usual time.

Thanks for the encouraging report Charlie. Tell those unit 1 hens to keep their knees together.

My unit 2 initial draw this year improved very slightly ... after 3 consecutive period E years I moved all the way up to period D (whoopeee). So I took advantage of the new 7-day periods to plan a unit 1 hunt spanning the last 2 days of per C & the 1st 3 days of per D. Picked up both those unit 1 permits in the leftover sales. It will mean that I have to come back to home unit 2 for the end-of-perD last few days of my initial draw.

I'll confess that I got greedy seeing the amount of leftover permits this year, & by the time the first weekend dust settled I had permits in the last 4 time periods in 3 different zones. Assuming that I can get off work as much as I'm hoping, gonna be a sleepy guy by the end of the season. Good problem to have.

Last spring season was a weird weather one here ... snowstorm, hail, high winds, most-of-day-fog. Hoping that this year's weather is a bit more boring.

Just got an email from a South Carolina friend, holding up 2 nice toms (they're allowed 2/day, 5/season I believe). Their season started March 15. He'll be done (May 1) by the time I'm starting.

[charlie elk]

You don't want to know how many tags I bought and there are still more available in case I run out.
Got to be careful how I talk I don't want to sound over confident and bring on the jinx.

Tell those unit 1 hens to keep their knees together.

As of last weekend the gobbling has nearly stopped, so that most likely means the hens are now breeding which is typical for this time of year. They will most likely start nesting in 2-3 weeks. Thereby leaving the gobblers lonely again looking for a girl even if it is falsie girl.
Only a gobbler brings a beak, beard and spurs to a gunfight.

[WillowRidgeCalls]

The birds around here are just breaking up from their winter flocks and starting to group up in small flocks of 8/10 birds this week. They are still gobbling up a storm in the mornings. Went to town today and saw a lot of small flocks in hayfields I went passed, just about every hayfield had birds in it at about 9:30am today. It should be a great youth hunt this weekend with birds just starting to get active, it's getting close to their breeding time so it should be a wild weekend. Can't wait to get out there.

[charlie elk]

They are still gobbling up a storm in the mornings.

That's cool. Here some jakes are gobbling a little at sunrise, then its quiet with small jake gangs running around. The older birds are now single with hens.

It should be a great youth hunt this weekend

Double Cool! Wish I had a youth to take out, I know just the place and bird. Thought my granddaughter might be ready this year but she too slight of frame and says she doesn't want to kill anything yet.

2 of my favorite turkey woods have been clear cut-

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clear cut.jpg (78.43 KiB) Viewed 339 times

Each piece is about 250 acres of prime oak turkey woods. The woods where Vic got his first and I have killed a lot of turkeys over the years. I was shocked to find them cut let alone clear cut by WDNR order. It is WMA land not a forest so I called to the county forester telling him he destroyed prime turkey habitat. He was totally unconcerned and explained they wanted aspen regeneration.
In a few years it will probably be good for a few grouse.

Have a good hunt with the youth this weekend.

[Gopherlongbeards]

Tough to balance the grouse and turkey habitat. Just got to have some of both I guess. Its always tough when when of your favorite pieces gets selected though. I wonder (especially since its a WMA we're talking about here) if they couldn't have selectively clear cut some smaller patches for grouse while leaving more of the mature forest in tact. Grouse are an edge species anyways, they don't need a huge block of aspen, a thinner band may have been a more effective compromise. Maybe some nongame bird species prefer the larger clear cuts?