Seasonal Turkey Movements

[shaman]

This is going to get down in the weeds.

For most of the past decade, I've noticed a phenomenon this time of year that seldom gets discussed.   My farm is 200 acres in SW Bracken County, KY about 10 miles from the Ohio River.  I'm about 2 miles from the Licking River and the predominant feature of the land is a series of sinuous ridges with hollows between.  For the past 10 years, I've noticed that when I come back to camp after a winter hiatus, there are sometimes just plain flat no turkeys around.  As the season progresses, they'll suddenly show up, take their places on the ancestral roosts, and conduct business as usual.   At times, I've wondered if they were ever going to show up at all.  At times I've wondered if they were there, and just being extra quiet.  This past weekend, I believe I witnessed proof that they really do migrate.

On Saturday, I went out with my recording gear to record one of my podcasts.  I heard  no turkeys on the property and came back in empty handed. I ended up at one of my listening posts, and just enjoyed the sunrise.  On Sunday, my granddaughter went out with me, and we went back to the same spot.  What cued me back was  that when I got up that morning, there was a gobbler gobbling in the bottom down below that listening post.  So we went out there.  He didn't gobble much-- only a couple times in the half hour we were there.  Still it was enough to get the Mooselette stirred up.

Sunday afternoon, my security camera caught a gobbler on his way out of the bottom, waddling up into the pasture in back of the house.  My guess is that by next weekend, the usual suspects will be back in their roosts with just 2 weeks left before season.

My questions to you are as follows:

1)  Do any of you see this seasonal migration?
2)  What are they coming from?
3)  What makes them move?

This migration doesn't happen all years, or if it does, it happens before my return (usually just after March 1).  In fact, some years, I've already gotten enough for 2 or 3 podcasts by now.  This year has been a complete zilch.  So was last year-- just no turkeys to record.

[Nathan_Wiles]

I definitely notice seasonal ranges with Turkeys. A preference to be in one place over another during different times of the year. I've also witnessed them shift out of an area entirely then shift back several years later. I "think" things like timber management, pressure, timber age all play a role. However, if I knew what made turkeys do what they do everytime I'd have killed a lot more of them than I have.

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[Ctrize]

Here in Michigan the two winter flocks that I see which can number over one hundred birds each are always in the area of two farms with standing timber.Not sure what holds them there but over the course of spring break up depending on the snow the numbers decrease as birds disperse. Yes they move although I don't know if there is minimum distance they have to move to be considered a migration. One farm is four miles away and another is ten. The birds we hunt seem to follow a river that is close to the farm and our property.I have nothing documented just going on the timing we find birds and where the gobble are coming from. Based on the number of times I have gone west to hunt and found no birds on public land they experience a similar movement.

[GobbleNut]

I believe turkeys respond to habitat changes first and foremost, but springtime migrations are likely a function of historical breeding locations that are memory-based. 

Here in the mountains of the west where most of the habitat is not manipulated by man in the form of agricultural practices, large-scale timber operations, or other management practices that significantly change the landscape, turkeys will graduate towards the same breeding locations pretty much every spring. 

The two primary habitat factors that will really impact our turkey populations in terms of long-term relocations are drought and fire.  Turkeys have to have surface water and in drought conditions here, many of those sources will dry up to a degree that the turkeys will move to the remaining reliable sources of water and stay in that area until conditions improve. 

Forest fires that significantly alter historic roosting habitat will sometimes totally move flocks of turkeys to new, more suitable locations, as well.

[fallhnt]

Yes. Food is the key

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[johnski]

I know that a lot of the places that I hunt in Connecticut and Rhode Island don't hold turkey's over the winter and they usually show back up in those areas around the end of March depending on the weather. I have walked the areas during the winter and there is no sign of turkeys.  I used to start scouting a lot earlier now I don't even bother until the season gets closer because they seem to move around so much this time of year.  Last year one the spots I hunt I had just about giving up on and thought the birds weren't in there.  I had been out listening 4 or 5 times during the last two weeks in April and hadn't heard a thing.  A week into the season I decided to give the spot a try and the birds were gobbling all around me.  As a side note last year the weather broke late in my area.  As to were they go I can not say. 

[shaman]

My best hypothesis for the migration is that the turkeys are scouring the woods for acorns all winter and move off my ridge when the acorns run out.  When I come back March 1, the woods are filled with V-shaped scratches, but there are no turkeys.  I think they come back when the clover starts growing in the pastures.  I only say that, because most years, that's what I find in the gobbler's craw.  The more active the year, the more clover I find.

[Dukejb]

In my part of Colorado they migrate uphill in the spring following the snow line as it recedes. In one area where I hunt, they will gather in massive flocks on several farms along the river. Once the snow starts melting they disperse up into the mountains.

[LaLongbeard]

At home I hunt the pine uplands, Pine ridges with small creek bottoms. In the fall and winter the birds are in the bottoms on the acorns and as spring aproaches the bottoms usually green up first and that's were the dogwoods etc are. Not much of a move but as the spring progresses the hens usually leave the bottoms to nest in the pines and edge of openings the Gobblers follow.

[SD_smith]

In South Dakota they migrate quite a ways from their winter flock areas. We get huge winter flocks anywhere between 200-500 birds depending on the area. They like to winter near the farmer with the most cattle and then literally within the first week of the season they start separating real fast. By late spring they will be 20 miles from the winter grounds. Preseason scouting out here is pointless unless you can hunt where they wintered.

[CAPTJJ]

Thought this was basic turkey biology. They flock up in the fall, concentrating on food sources, stay together through winter, then break up in the spring to breed, nest, then raise their broods through the summer... then it starts over.

[Happy]

I have always noticed a shift in ranges as the year progresses. From my observations it is all related to food and in the spring, nesting habitat. Now my grandfather swears by the 2 day loop. His observation is that here in the mountains a flock of turkeys will take two days to cover their range. He has never been a turkey hunter but he has spent 70 plus years in the woods as a deer and squirrel hunter and he pays pretty good attention to stuff. Now I can get on board with a flock covering a pretty good range here in the mountains. Our density isn't very high and food sources are more scarce than in agricultural country. I can't say as its a two day loop that can be counted on with any consistency and common sense would say that during the breeding season a hen has to be fairly close to her nest location. However that being said I can give you locations where gobblers tend to roost if they are in the area but that isn't a guarrantee. I think there is a definite distinction between big woods turkeys and farmland turkeys. And it's not just behavior.

[Rzrbac]

It's food and cover. Some winter ranges that may hold food may or may not provide suitable nesting habitat for the hens.

[makestomstremble]

I used to hunt an area in western Oklahoma that was roughly two miles from a large river, and the birds would usually show up just before the season opened. I think a lot of it is dependent on nesting habitat, dictated by the hens. I think the rios we hunt here seem to like areas where cattle are, the hoof action breaks down the grass making it easier for poults to move through. The places where cattle have been hayed all winter is also a big attraction as well.

[G squared 23]

I think hen groups break up and spread out further to nest.  I run trail cams on my small 60 acre property from August to January at least.  I get less than one picture of a turkey per month during that period, and I've seen turkeys on the property during the fall once or twice. Total. In 4 yeats.  I've always thought I was on the fringes of a flock and the edge of the breeding season roosting areas.  I always (4 years in a row) catch a hen sneaking through with a gobbler in tow.  Never, ever more than one tom, and never more than one hen.  I think the hens are dispersing from the normal flock's homerange in order to nest in private.  I've seen some jakes walk through looking for hens or whatever they're doing, but never more than two turkeys at the same time.  I have a great secluded strutting field with clover on the edge, but obviously this piece of property doesn't hold a single turkey the rest of the year.  I don't keep cameras put past May, so I don't have any pics of poults.