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Biology; bird behavior question?

Started by Marc, April 06, 2020, 02:58:40 PM

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BB30

Quote from: Spitten and drummen on April 06, 2020, 03:07:17 PM
Man down here in Ms , the birds I am hunting act like they are done. Seeing hens feeding and seeing toms feeding and not strutting. In January we saw gobblers strutting around hens. This has been a awful season for me and a buddy on our place. We only hear a couple of gobbles on the limb and then silence the rest of the day. Pulling my hair out.

I hunt MS and Bama as well in the golden triangle area. Our turkeys were a touch late getting going this year. I don't think it changes but by a few days to a week each year though. So any noticeable effects should be negligent at best. I do believe the lack of daylight in February/beginning of March had them pushed back by a few days.

We are just now starting to see sign of nesting going on heavily. Beginning of last week was the first week I saw lone hens in typical nesting areas and lone sets of hen tracks on the logging roads surrounding these areas.

The turkey will still be doing their thing well into may regardless it just may be hit or miss depending on the morning.

As for gobbling I haven't heard as much as I typically do but again, I think this can be attributed to the weather more so than anything else. We haven't had too many strings of 3-4 good weather days in a row. The last week and a half hasn't been as bad and I have heard more gobbling along with it.

silvestris

Increasing hunting pressure shuts down gobbling.  Hens leaving in the opposite direction of gobbling birds tells me that they are heading to a non-gobbling preferred male who does not need to gobble as he and the hens know where he can be found.
"[T]he changing environment will someday be totally and irrevocably unsuitable for the wild turkey.  Unless mankind precedes the birds in extinction, we probably will not be hunting turkeys for too much longer."  Ken Morgan, "Turkey Hunting, A One Man Game