Turkeys are gobbling.

[.36Rooster]

Doing some work at a trout hatchery, setting a foundation. Every morning and afternoon, a pair of nuisance wildlife (bald eagles), perch at the top of a dead tree on the ridge above us and chitter and screech after committing their crimes....pretty cool...there's turkeys running around the jobsite all winter long, to the extent that we quit noticing them weeks ago. However, this afternoon, when the eagles came back around 2pm screeching as they landed, a group of turkeys on the hillside lit up and reacted to the noise with the hens cackling and the toms gobbling. By the end of the day, we had heard half a dozen periodic gobbles while setting forms, and while driving to get some food at lunch, I passed a group of turkeys chasing, hopping, and lurching at one another...

I don't know what has changed, it was like a switch just flipped. Yesterday and all the days before, they weren't like that. Today, they are...just makes you wonder how and why...

And to think, snow on the ground, and our morning temperature at -7 degrees...

 

[deermanok]

Funny you mentioned that. I heard a turkey gobbling on Monday late morning.

 

[okawbow]

I’ve heard turkeys gobble at odd times all year long. A loud noise or a predator coming near and scaring the hens will make a gobbler sound off.

 

[.36Rooster]

I have heard them gobble during thunderstorms...but every year i am just marveled at the behavior change i see in early february. It goes beyond the odd gobbling...sort of like the same way the songbird mating songs pick up in the mornings during february as well, even though it is still too cold for them to nest....

 

[appalichian hunter]

Boys tuning up the turkey love song.

 

[oldwood]

The last day of the late flint deer season here in Pa. , we hunted ladder stands in late afternoon. Driving to the woods , we saw close to 100 turkeys in a big field feeding. We went to the stands and just at dark , a part of the big flock of turkeys decided to move into the woods to roost for the night right where we were in the ladder stands. As they came in to land all around us, they made a noise I had never heard. Their sort of normal turkey talking had an occasional loud pop at the end. They were all doing it. None of my turkey hunting friends , have ever heard anything like that. The experience was unusual , as none of my other hunting friends has ever been directly in the path of a flock of roosting turkeys landing around them.........oldwood

 

[appalichian hunter]

They were setting the watch for night security, and letting each other know where they were.

 

[oldwood]

A. Hunter...........Thanks for a possible explanation for the turkey night landing. Spend enough time in the woods , lots can be learned....oldwood

 

[appalichian hunter]

They also make kind of a chirping sound prior to coming off the roost --- at least that's what it sounds like to me, by the way I do not hear too well. Ever notice how a flock on the ground walks bye or near you how they a constantly chirping back and forth to each other, Also a good way to hunt them in the fall season is to bust a flock sit down and do a locate call they will come right back together.

 

[oldwood]

I'm not much of a turkey hunter. The state , Pa. , has stupidly banned hunting turkeys with rifle in fall. Used to love to go for them in fall with my .40 long rifle. Like I'm going to quit hunting "small game" w/ m/l rifle in the fall , that's going to happen. Friend of mine put a flock of birds to bed late one evening. Came back early next morning w/ his two sons to catch the roosting turkeys as they landed on the ground.
The three of them got in position with expert caller Dad , doing the honors. With in a minute , a large black bear ambled over near the turkey talker and stood up in the laurel. The bear , "busted up the flock " of hunters , instead of the hunters , calling birds off the roost. ..................oldwood

 

[Zutt-man]

You can hear them throughout the year gobbling. I caught some long beards on trail camera the other day establishing a pecking order which was fun to see. There’s a biologist named Michael Chamberlain (goes by the wild Turkey Dr) I follow on social media who is extremely insightful on turkey behaviors. Truly fascinating

 

[Cattywompuss]

I know that the turkey season in Georgia, which usually starts mid-March, is designed to start mid-mating season. Since it lasts until May, that would put the beginning of the Strut in February, which we are nearly two weeks into. But that is just for GA. Not sure about the rest of the country.

 

[The Crisco Kid]

Nothing to do with turkeys but if you want to see something funny watch a bald eagle swimming to shore with a salmon he's just caught that is too big to lift out of the water. Lots of flailing wings. I've also seen a dead salmon on the highway that an eagle had dropped. It looked like a road kill salmon.

edit: I just found this on youtube

 

[.36Rooster]

I can believe it, with your latitude down south. Up here though, we are still getting snowstorms and temperatures in the negative doubles... but there always seems to be anticipation nestled in a turkey flocks late winter behavior, however. The birds seem to be much more excitable lately.

 

[megasupermagnum]

I wish that had been the case for me. I did two turkey trips this winter, both dismal failures. One was the week before Christmas, the day after the first big snow for the black hills. I spent 4 days and 500+ miles looking for turkeys or tracks off every road I could find in the BH1 unit. Found a couple dozen in Edgemont city limits. Tried to hunt them, but I couldn't find a single track on property bordering city limits. I talked to numerous locals, almost universally they said they never saw turkeys where they were, but gave me a direction to go where there were. Finally on day 5 I found five or six turkeys near Custer right at sunset. Day 6 morning I set up in that spot, never saw or heard anything. I followed their tracks to the roost, then continued to track them into someone's yard. That evening I set on their track to the roost... nothing. Drove home that night.

Then I went back 4 weeks later, got off work at 12am, drove out to Custer, and got down the road to that roost about 7am. Sunrise comes... and nothing. Zero snow at all, warm, sunny. Fantastic weather, but did not help. The few patches of snow had zero tracks. I then spent 2 days searching. Day 3 I found a fresh turkey track in some mud. I found where a group had crossed a creek. So I'm out there on the last day, middle of January, in a T shirt, and I'm listening to Harleys blasting up the mountain roads. It was surreal. Unfortunately I never heard a turkey, or saw one. The killer was on day 3 when I stopped on the side of the road to consult the map, and a Sherriff truck pulls up asking if I'm ok. I said yes, I'm just having trouble finding turkeys. He says, I can't help, I almost never see them around here, try up by city X. Well unfortunately city X is outside of the fall hunting unit.

It just sucks how small of an area you are restricted to in the fall. There are hardly any turkeys in the BH1 unit at all. I did a grand total of 10 days hunting, and only saw 6-7 turkeys right at dark one time. In that same time I saw hundreds (no exaggeration) of whitetails, dozens of mule deer, around 30 bighorn, including one well past full curl, a dozen mountain goat, a big herd of buffalo, a small herd of elk, and even a dead elk. I saw pretty much everything except turkey.

And then I came home to Aberdeen, where we don't even have a turkey season spring or fall due to low numbers, and what do I see? A flock of turkeys. I've been turkey hunting a long time. I've had good years, and I've had bad years. This is by a wide margin, the worst turkey hunting I have ever experienced.

 

[deerstalkert]

have a big tom that roosts in the cedar tree next to the house. all alone.
nice bird with a 10 inch beard. 5:00 am he flies down and stomps across the snow to our front porch, cleans up the bird seed that the bride puts out for the Chickadees.
then he walks to the edge of the lawn and launches, glides clear to the wma that covers the valley below me. 1.5 miles. no idea why he has adopted my cedar. its all uphill from where he spends his day.

 

[bushytail]

Pretty cool video. I didn’t know eagles could swim. I’m gonna start scouting for turkeys now that we’re getting some nice days. Hopefully I’ll hear some gobbling.

 

[Rifleman1776]

I have heard them gobble during thunderstorms

Yes, they do that. If yer willing to hold a steel pipe pointing skyward storms are a good time to hunt them. Easily located.
BTW, we have seen them where I live recently. A bunch roosted in a tree near my house. I thought they were black buzzards. But, the next day they came walking through the yard and I was able to see they were really turkeys and all had black heads, necks and wattles. Their body coverings were also nearly black, very little pattern showing on their feathers. All were hens. I might call our Game and Fish commission to find out how this color variation might have occurred.

 

[Nuthatch]

I don’t live where the turkeys do — gotta drive to them a little ways. But the doves around here are pretty randy these last couple weeks. And my bees are waking up from winter, laying up a bunch of brood & getting ready to swarm — likely in just a few more weeks. The blossoms are just starting to pop on the fruit trees. It’s fun to see Spring coming & all life waking up to the season. It’s no wonder why the bunny rabbit is still the Easter mascot. Our turkey season starts at the end of March, after the main mating season. Figure it’s going on now. It won’t be long until I can try to call one in.