For the upcoming season, I am pulling some portions of my land that are current farmed, out of ag production and planting them in native grasses and forbes.
I've worked everything out with the farmer and I plan to mark these areas with the small wire flags often used for utilities and the like. so that he doesn't waste fertilzer spray and seed. I plan to use lime green.
My question is, does anyone have any experience, or opinions on whether or not these flags would spook or disrupt turkey movement. Much of this work is on field edge and in field pockets where turkey historically strut, and I hunt. Will the bright green flags spook them?
Thanks in advance
In my experience, about the only way they would spook birds is if they see you putting them out. Once out I don't think they will bother turkeys or any other wildlife unless there is an abundance of them. If it looks like runway lights at an airport then I'm not so sure. But even with that I think it would be a temporary disruption if any.
I actually have a little experience in the area. one area I hunt (thousands of acres) has miles of gas lines. one area about 250 acres was scheduled to be cut so, the gas companies came in and flagged the lines about a month before our last gobbler season. there were flags everywhere you looked and I can honestly say it did not interfere with the turkey or the deer. I'd bet an overhead view of that area would look like a kid used a marker on a map.
Have them mark each corner with a big pile of corn. Your hunting should be outstanding this spring. :toothy12:
Turkeys aren't that smart OR wary.
You're good to go.
Only flags I have heard of that allegedly scare birds of any kind are huge, like flag pole huge The farmers around here used them to repel either Canadian Geese or one other kind of goose the name of which I do not recall at this time. I know the one guy lost 60% of his crop because of whichever it is. OH Snow geese are the others.
Thanks everyone. I tend to overthink things. But with only so much time and space to hunt I hate to mess it up. Thanks again
This is not really the same deal, but here goes;
We had a trespasser come in and try to hunt the lower corner of our lease. Apparently, he couldn't read, because he had to walk past 5-6 posted signs and painted trees to get where his popup blind was set up. We didn't want to damage or remove the blind (trespasser was the neighbor's grandson), so we tied some silver mylar balloons up in the trees around the blind, which rattled and flashed in the breeze. It seemed to work because he didn't kill any turkeys and we never heard any gobbles from over there. When the owner of our lease got back in town, he called the guy's grandfather to put an end to it right quick.
Green flags shouldn't bother them. However, I'm here to tell you that hunter orange will completely blow their minds.
I've seen gobblers go berserk with a hunter orange hat and vest at distances over 250 yards.
And I have had turkeys walk up to me on the log I was leaning on wearing blaze orange while deer hunting.
As a forester who lays out hundreds of rolls of ribbon a year, I don't think it bothers any wildlife and I don't think turkeys would be any different. Plenty of ribbon in the woods I hunt. No issues.