Is there any way to tell what sort of animal made a scratching? The area I am hunting has lots of what look like scratchings, but no other clear signs of turkeys like feathers or droppings. There seems to be the requisite habitat but haven't heard anything.
Good question actually...
I have scratches from other critters that look very similar to what turkey scratches could look like (at least to me)... A friend of mine was sure he was seeing what were turkey scratches, but could never see any turkeys... He put up a cam, and it turned out to be raccoons (at night)...
If there is a large area of turkey scratching, it would indicate high use, and I would expect to find feathers, footprints, or turkey poop in such an area.
Usually you will see long claw marks spaced farther apart. Imagine taking a real turkey foot and raking the ground with it. It's fairly distinct from squirrels, coons, armadillos, and other critters that forage this way. Tracks should be the next thing you look for. Poop and feathers maybe but that's more random.
I saw this mentioned on a video I watched the other day and learned a little bit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLJc6HJ0H4k (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLJc6HJ0H4k)
Listen to the talk around the campfire at the end about scratching.
Turkeys scratch in a "V" pattern. If you notice the debris that gets kicked up and the direction it is thrown, it may help to discern what made the scratch.
Another thing I recently learned is when you find those tracks that you can tell difference between male and female by the length of the middle toe.
Quote from: kjnengr on April 26, 2018, 04:55:22 PM
I saw this mentioned on a video I watched the other day and learned a little bit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLJc6HJ0H4k (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLJc6HJ0H4k)
Listen to the talk around the campfire at the end about scratching.
Turkeys scratch in a "V" pattern. If you notice the debris that gets kicked up and the direction it is thrown, it may help to discern what made the scratch.
Ahh thanks for explaining that. I had seen that video and part of what made me post the question is that I didn't understand what they meant but that makes sense.
I was out today and took some picture of what I am seeing. Are these from turkeys? And is the scat fron a tom? It looks j shaped to me.
Im not sure how to post all the pics to the thread withoht going over the size limit, so here is a link:
https://imgur.com/a/ClotjRZ
Turkey scratchings mostly have a v appearance if you look closely at them.
Quote from: Extendo Clip on May 03, 2018, 02:56:04 PM
I was out today and took some picture of what I am seeing. Are these from turkeys? And is the scat fron a tom? It looks j shaped to me.
Im not sure how to post all the pics to the thread withoht going over the size limit, so here is a link:
https://imgur.com/a/ClotjRZ
Do a google search on turkey scratching and turkey droppings...
Here is a good picture of tom vs. hen scat:
(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/972/41877766341_098ce3b7e0_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/26NAuWa)a1-scat (https://flic.kr/p/26NAuWa) by Marc Sorsky (https://www.flickr.com/photos/156737132@N07/), on Flickr
Ah, that's easy. It looks like a turkey did it. I guess if you think about it, nothing else in the woods is equipped to scratch like a turkey does. Deer don't have the claws to rake like that. Most everything else is pushing, not scratching. If you're not sure, go look in roost areas for scratching that looks like it was all made going in the same direction up hill.
Turkey droppings as pictured above were not made in the peak of breeding. Turkey plop loses its shape when the cloaca is "multi-tasking" more than usual.
Turkeys rake down to the dirt. Usually a bare patch with leaves piled to the back.