Archives for March 2013

Can Turkeys Find Snow Insects?

March 17, 2013 by Charlie 4 Comments

Wild turkeys are amazing, they have proven to be tough survivors under harsh conditions. Sometimes they are referred to as goats with feathers because of their ability find and eat such a variety of food.

Earlier this winter I found a flock of turkeys scratching in deep snow powder but they appeared not to be scratching down through the snow as they would if they were exposing nuts or seeds. This got my curiosity going so I moved in to investigate what they were after.

Even in the dead of winter insects are available.

Insects take refuge in tree bark to wait out the winter and apparently after some high winds they blown out into the snow were they wait helplessly on the wild turkeys buffet.

Here is another iced insect, mosquito?

The Turkey’s Snood Knows

March 9, 2013 by Charlie 4 Comments

What is the purpose of a wild turkey’s snood?

According to research done by University of Mississippi Dr. Richard Buchholz

In addition to uncovering a non-sexual function for the brightly colored, bare head of the male wild turkey (which is crucial for maintaining sub-lethal body temperatures under warm ambient conditions and during physical exertion), my work also demonstrated that one aspect of male head ornamentation, the frontal process, or snood is subject to both inter-sexual and intrasexual selection. Captive female wild turkeys prefer to mate with long snooded males, and during dyadic interactions, male turkeys deferred to males with relatively longer snoods. These results were demonstrated using both live males and controlled artificial models of males.

So according to Dr. Buchholz research the hens prefer a long snood on their gobbler. But what is the genetic advantage of a long snood?

Dr. Buchholz continues

in the wild the long snooded males preferred by females and avoided by males seemed to be resistant to coccidia infection.

Very interesting I will be following the Doctor’s research.

As a hunter, I have noticed all turkeys snoods vary in length depending on their general state of alert or alarm.

When a turkey is relaxed and unalarmed, their snood is longer.

As a turkey becomes more alert to something out of place the snood begins to shorten.

They alarmed the turkey becomes the shorter the snood becomes.

Snood length gives the hunter an indication of the turkey’s mood or agitation. When the snood shortens you must make the decision- shoot or not shoot. Should the shot not be good you must be very still and quiet for any hope of the turkey settling back down. Most of the time a turkey who has suddenly shortened his snood is getting ready to leave the area.

How to Legally Bait Wild Turkeys

March 3, 2013 by Charlie 1 Comment

After aggressive calling the evening before. This public land wild turkey was waiting for me the next morning and came in without hesitation.

The baiting of wild turkeys with food is banned in all states with turkey populations unless you have a permit to capture and relocate turkeys or a depredation hunt.

However, what I have in mind and the method I use, particularly during the spring turkey hunt is audio baiting.

Audio Baiting

It’s no secret turkeys are attracted by “Turkey Talk”, the sounds made by other turkeys. After all, that is why most turkey hunters make or purchase several different styles of turkey calls. Some hunters have bought into the notion that turkeys become call shy, and you should not call when you are not hunting. Unless you are a terrible caller or cause a big human disturbance entering and leaving the hunting area, you will not scare or educate turkeys by making turkey sounds. By the way, some of the worst turkey calls I have ever heard came out of the beaks of turkeys.

How it works

The evening before your hunt decide where you would like a gobbler to be the next morning, the approximate area. The tom probably will not fly into the exact tree you desire, but he may get close to it. The goal is to pull a wandering gobbler or two into the area you can hunt come morning.

Locate a prominent open location where sounds you make will have the best chance of traveling the greatest distance possible. Trees, vegetation, and hills obstruct or absorb sound. Some unobstructed sound corridors are necessary. Another method is to move quietly along a trail audio trolling; picture floating a river casting in likely spots only you are using audio lures rather than fishing lures. Think of it as audio chumming.

If your season is open and it is legal to take your gun on this setup just in case a gobbler shows, after all, you are in a turkey woods that contains turkeys and you never know when one is going to show. At least one-third of all my spring turkeys are taken late afternoon/early evening.

After setting up start calling; using yelps, cackles, purrs, and clucks; increasing the volume and intensity as sunset approaches. Guide your calling by imagining a couple of hens sparring with each other over the best roost trees. Of course, as you call, listen for an answering gobbler and if you hear an answering gobble begin calling as you would during any other setup.

Assuming you heard no turkeys going to roost, understand, this does not mean there are not any turkeys in the immediate area. If you have no other “for sure spot” at which to start in the morning, arrive at the last evening’s calling location before gobbling time. Many times I hear the gobblers without doing anything else, so all that remains is to pick a good setup location and go about calling em in. If you don’t hear anything owl hoot or tree yelp and listen, then proceed with your hunt in the usual manner.

Late in Wisconsin’s 2012 spring turkey season a friend hunting in northern Wisconsin called me for advice about finding a turkey. He is a very experienced turkey hunter accustom to success all over the country. But he wanted to kill a turkey on his property, something that had eluded him for many years. He described gobblers roosting along the property line of his land but in the morning they promptly flew into the neighbor’s field, strutted and faded away.

I suggested that he should try audio baiting as previously described in order to pull the turkeys deeper into his land in the hopes of then setting up between the turkeys and field. My grateful buddy called the next day with the happy news it worked. He had killed his first ever gobbler on his property shortly after fly down and admitted he had thought I was crazy suggesting the audio baiting strategy.

Update: Kirkland Warblers and Wild Turkeys audio baiting.

The above-linked update article covers wild turkeys being motivated to move into new areas with the use of calling. Wildlife biologists are using audio baiting tactic to get Kirkland Warblers, sage grouse and prairie chickens onto actively managed habitat.