Turkey patterns
Massachusetts
Around this time of year I put a few mouth calls in my car so I can practice while driving around. As I was yelping away in a traffic jam today I got to thinking about a pattern I noticed in the turkey woods last spring. I have 3 specific spots where turkeys roosted in a corner location for the majority of the spring. Two of these spots are in the burbs where 2 houses abutted each other in a way that formed a 90 degree corner between the woods and their back yards. There were turkeys roosted right in those corners during the entirety of the season. If the 500 foot rule didn't exist slipping in underneath them would be as close to a slam dunk as you could get in the hunting world.
The 3rd corner location was where very thick cover, hard woods, and evergreens grew in such a way that a 90 degree corner was formed. They seemed to roost here with less consistency than the birds in the burbs, but I found them roosted in that corner on more than one occasion.
Do you guys have any particular turkey patterns you see year after year?
That's interesting Joe. A quick thought on this idea has me thinking I see something... but not sure it's the same.
I do find birds like to roost in pines over other tree species, and on hills. I can think of several spots where birds roost where there is a corner, or at least hard edge, between pines and hardwoods or pines/hardwoods and a hill slope, for examples.
It's murky though. Is it the edge/corner, or the preference for pines to roost? I'm wondering if it's the combo, but erring to the pines. Not sure. Interesting to see what others note on this.
Big pines near lots of houses for sure. I ain’t seen nothing in the woods 1000 ft from houses.
I've been hunting the same piece of woods for turkeys since 2011 and all but one year they were in the same 2 spots. A big pine near a house or on a couple big oaks near a ridge with a flat space before it continued going up. That one year they didn't show up was an extremely cold spring and they finally showed up in June after the season. I read that turkeys tend to use the same roost year after during breeding season. And Pi, I've had a few loggers/foresters in upper Maine/Canada i know say ticks didnt show up bad until the turkeys did. So who knows?!
Love my logging road hikes !
Love my logging road hikes !
Hunt, big difference in East V. West birds. West of CT river, give me a long logging road, a spring morning and the voice of God at Sunrise and I'll show you a dead bird !
Oh you mean how turkeys act... I find they usually roost in the same spots. Sneak in as close as you can with a full strutter and 2 hens. They come runnin. Light calling
Few years ago after I shot the Turkey told my little guy it was still moving and needed another arrow. Now it is his Turkey lol
Xi and Bj those are great pics right there!
You guys are definitely right about the pines, in all 3 instances pines were involved in their roosting location. And Will I think you are probably right about the combo of edges coming together. All 3 spots had 3 different habitat types that all collided on their roosting spot.
