"Understanding Turkey Movements"

Most turkey hunters only hunt the first three hours of daylight when the gobblers are the most vocal, then if unsuccessful they call it quits for the day. I must admit that the turkey hunting after this point can get a little tougher and discouraging when the gobblers aren't revealing their whereabouts, but the truth is we harvest more gobblers on my guided hunts between 9:00 and 11:00 a.m. than during the early morning hours. To understand this and be more successful at all times of the day we must first understand why and where turkeys hang-out at different places during the day.

The turkeys day starts as the dark night gives way to morning light. The excited gobbler wakes the woods with his thunderous gobbles. He usually stays on the roost gobbling until a hen walks to his roost. He then flies down and his 2 mile daily travels begin The spring gobbler is interested in few things other than displaying and mating this time of year. The hen on the other hand is first interested in feeding and having a strong handsome escort as she heads toward the feeding areas. The gobbler of course, having what he wants (the hen) follows her to the feeding area. Feeding areas are ideally farm fields and high oak ridges with the farm fields, especially rye fields, being their first choice. These fields not only provide fresh greens for feeding, but are the perfect strutting area for the gobbler to show off in. Once the gobbler is with the hen he doesn't gobble as much. This is why many gobblers go quiet after flying down from the roost. They are busy displaying for hens. I always try to set my hunters up between the roost and feeding area for our first set up. This way we know where the birds are, and where they want to be. This really makes them come in to the calling mush easier, believing that other turkeys have gotten a head start on them.

After 2-3 hours of feeding and breeding the hen quickly wanders off to her nest to lay an egg, leaving the poor gobbler alone to search for another woman, and search he does. He again becomes vocal as he walks the woods gobbling at any loud sound he hears waiting to hear those cuts and sweet yelps from any hen that will have him. This is why we are so successful between 9:00 and 11:00 a.m. Most hunters are out of the woods and in the restaurant, leaving the gobbler vulnerable.

After 11 a.m. as the spring sun beats down and heats up in a hurry, the birds go to one of two places. In most cases they first head to a dusting bowl to powder their feathers and cool off. Next they head to low lands, usually cool river bottoms, to cool off and scratch around. They will spend most of the warm part of the day in these areas not moving around much. A good tactic for this time of day is to set a full bodied decoy without its stake into a dusting bowl. Sit 20 yards away and wait for a gobbler to approach. I call very softly and very sparingly, giving out a few clucks and purrs every 15-20 minutes. Expect the gobbler to sneak in without gobbling.

As the afternoon gives way to early evening and it cools down, the birds once again start their search for food in the farm fields and high oak ridges. They will spend the remainder of the day in these feeding areas until about 1-2 1/2 hours before dark, in which case they slowly feed all the way to their roosting area and spend the last half hour close to the roost, finally flying up for the night. Their evening should be of special interest to the Michigan hunter, as he\she will now be allowed to hunt until sundown. Keep in mind that it is unlawful, not to mention highly unethical, to shoot a turkey out of the roost. You can however effectively intercept them as they leave the feeding area and head toward the roost.

Knowing the turkeys routine helped me to correctly position two of my hunters for a same day double last year. It was an hour before daylight. I knew where the turkeys roosted and knew two of their favorite farm fields that they headed to once they flew down. Since I had 2 hunters I positioned Eric Willey 80 yards south of the roost while Jim Myers and myself sat 80 yards north of the roost. I figured if everything went right, one of my hunters would get an early shot and possibly scare the remainder of the flock back toward the other hunter. As daybreak came the two gobblers filled the air with loud gobbles. I gave out a soft tree yelp every now and then to which the gobblers gobbled. As it became fly down time, and to my dismay, a hen had roosted 30 yards from us with in easy view. She of course flew down in the opposite direction of Jim and I taking the gobblers with her. Fortunately, she took the gobblers toward the other field which led them right through Eric. After a loud KA-BOOM followed by a lot of hooping and hollering, Jim and I waited a few minutes to see if anything was headed our way. When nothing came we went over to Eric and found that he had taken a nice trophy gobbler. It was Eric's first bird. After congratulations Jim asked "What do we do now?" Knowing that these birds were done for a while and that the gobblers should still be vocal in other areas, we loaded up the truck and headed to another property. After walking and talking unsuccessfully for the next 3 hours I took Jim to some well used dusting bowls I know of We were only there for about 10 minutes before a group of four Jakes popped into our clearing 75 yards away and started single file toward us and the dusting bowls. Jim already had his gun up and pointed. With every step they took my heartbeat harder and harder. I could see poor Jim shaking a little bit out of excitement. As the lead bird approached 20 yards I whispered "take him". As the gun went off and the gobbler dropped, Jim and I started giving each other high fives. Eric heard the shot and was wanting for us by the truck. It was knowing where the turkeys hung-out at different times of the day that led to a bunch of smile filled pictures, two excited hunters a happy guide and plenty of fond memories from the turkey woods.