Turkey Habitat

[WV Flopper]

 So, here is the question.... What is good turkey Habitat?

I think if we are open, we will find out a few things here that may be to our disbelief, or maybe not to our view of our belief.

I hunt a several different areas locally, within 50 miles of my house, East and West. I, like a lot of you, are blessed to say I have been able to do a little traveling and have been able to turkey hunt in different regions and states. The older/experienced I get, my habitat feelings have changed from once what they were.

Today, I feel turkeys prefer diversity. Turkeys need 4 basic things, food, water, roost trees and nesting/poult rearing areas. Some may say that's 5 basic things. I wouldn't argue that.

One of the best places I have to kill turkeys is 270 acres at the edge of a city, with a housing development bordering the East side. A highway surrounds the property, with small plots of private property along one of the highway sides. It has large open white oak timber as the main timber, a 2 acre patch of white pine, two creek bottoms, two 25 acre fields, two small ponds. The creek bottoms are thick with brush, and one ridge has young thick timber growth. There is a nice 50 acre property beside this I can hunt as well, its more of the same.

Between myself, my son, a friend, we have killed 5 toms a year off of here. There are people on the other side of the road that also shoot, and maybe kill something once in a while. But, the piece I hunt always has turkeys. They rejuvenate ever year, I don't remember every stopping hunting there and not hearing turkeys left for seed. This in part is in my belief to be because of good, preferred, habitat.

  Describe what you feel is good habitat. The habitat of the best place you have to hunt. Lets compare across the country our habitats.

[Tail Feathers]

Food, water, shelter and nesting habitat.  But that can look so different depending on where the turkeys are it's hard to say much beyond that.

[Paulmyr]

Diversity is the key. I think there's a difference between good turkey habitat and what some people perceive as good turkey hunting habitat. Large tracts of  mature oaks just don't cut it. Their great for fall and winter habitat. Even early spring. They just don't have enough of what it takes to sustain a healthy turkey population year round. They lack food for polts and cover to protect nests/polts from predators. On the other end of the spectrum large grassy open areas are great for spring/summer and even fall as far as forage goes. In the winter not so much. I'm a woods hunter. Oak flats really get my crank turning but there has to be some type of opening/clearing somewhere around if I'm going to find turkeys consistently. When turkey hunting first opened in northern MN. I looked for mature oaks. These stands of timber were thousands of acres of oaks, maples, Aspen, and poplar. I wandered all over wondering why I couldn't find any turkey sign. There were plenty of acorns for them to eat.  After a couple years the light went on. It's not hard to find them now after stepping back and looking at the bigger picture. I've hunted MN, Wi, Mo, Ark, and Ga. Northern MN and Ark are the only places I've hunted where the landscape is 90% timber or more. The areas I've found turkeys consistently in all of these states have some type of diversity in common.

[Shiloh]

Same here.  The more diverse the property is the better.  Around here it's clear cuts, roads, big timber, fields, creeks, small timber, etc....

[WV Flopper]

 I agree, it does and can look much different from region to region. Even neighboring properties.

The Western side of my local hunting area is and has been timbered hard for as long as I can remember. Some of what I seen cut while in high school has been cut twice since, and I am not that old. Timber cutting adds another diversified portion to the habitat. I know, me included, a lot of people don't like timber cutting. But it is a good thing for all, when done in a good manner.

I would never have thought when I was a kid that a clear cut would hold much value to a turkey, but they sure do. 

[Paulmyr]

Clear cutts? Don't know what your talking about. Never seen a turkey near a clear cutt.

[eggshell]

Clear cutts? Don't know what your talking about. Never seen a turkey near a clear cutt.

I have to wonder if your serious or pulling our leg. I hunt primarily Ohio and Kentucky and spring and fall woods adjacent to clear cuts are the honey holes. We have scattered clear cuts all around our family properties and that is the first place I go look for turkeys. Most of our woods are big mature oak, maple, and hickory stands and the birds use these areas for travel, loafing and roosting, but they head to the clear cuts and timbered area to feed. We have a lot of open grass fields, but you seldom see them in those. Mostly it's hens and poults in the fields.

I agree, diversity is the key word. I think these critters will make due just about anywhere, but there is one key parameter that I see will move them off habitat....human activity. I think peaceful low human use areas are important. I know a couple woods that look like prime turkey habitat, but are run over with human intrusion (ATVs and hikers) and you will rarely see turkey sign there  or turkeys. That is why habitat lost to development is very high on my list of the declines. Take a 40 acre property full of turkeys and plop a home and outbuildings right in the middle of it and add a lot of human activity and bingo the turkeys move away. Sure you'll see them pass through, but they don't stay there if they have a choice. After posting this, I got to thinking and I wonder how much of a factor ATV activity is on the declines we are seeing. I know in the last 30 years ATV use has sky rocketed. I know a lot of people are scratching their head and wondering what the problem is, sometimes it's something way out in left field that no one thought would ever be "it". I know spring nesting season is also ATV season around me, after winter they're ready to ride. People also ride them to mushroom hunt and get to areas that never got much activity in the past. Hmmm just thinking.

I suspect all of us can think of urban areas that seem to have a lot of turkeys, but ask yourself, does it really or are the ones there just concentrated in the small available habitat. They can be very adaptive, but they won't flourish in these areas. Of course  you can find exceptions, but I don't see many of us posting kill threads from cities. 

[WV Flopper]

 I must admit, I haven't giving much thought to the off road vehicle use. They do perturb me to no end in the spring! I have been in a large hunting club since I was 15 I believe, it totals around 60,000 acres of private property. The members of this club are allowed to ride on all of the roads that are not blocked. By that I mean all roads that don't have a water break pushed 3-4' high across them. Otherwise, a road is pretty much fair game. I believe they pay the same dues that I do and are within their rights to do so, as long as the club rules are followed. I do it myself starting in June. There are a lot of roads to ride.

Yes, around this part it is off road vehicle season as well as spring turkey season. With turkeys liking to nest along roads this can cause an issue I guess, and it very well could push them out of an area as well.  But this is mostly a weekend/Holiday deal here, and I would question if turkeys would forever relocate over it.

Turkeys can and do travel great distances. This is usually done at seasonal changes or close to it to make ready for the new season. Back in the research days we had some turkeys here with nice little tracking harnesses on them. It was amazing to me how much our local turkeys would travel in the fall and winter. Then to return to a spring range later towards the end of winter.

In speaking of this travel. There is a good sized property down the road here from the house. Back in the day, in February you would see 30 toms and 100+ hens in the river bottom on this property. 15 years ago there was a very nice 4 lane highway built that cut the property off. This coming February you will see 5 to at most 8 toms in this bottom. Its not because they are not around, its because of the road, and the property on the wilderness side has become stagnant. It needs a good timber cutting!

Amazing to me, how many trees can be in an area and what/where turkeys prefer to roost in. They sure don't seem to me to just walk along and at the end of the day plop up into a tree. An area I have hunted in Florida is a good example of this. Lots of trees, but not many make a roost tree, or roost area.

How many of us believe timber cuts are bad for the turkeys habitat? And why do you feel this way? I have read it countless times, I know some of us feel this way. I personally have a problem with the 200 acre clear cuts and 1/2"mile down the road is another and another. But, that is only my opinion and it really has nothing to do with the turkey or turkey habitat. It does condense hunters though, which in turn effects the turkey.



   

[Happy]

My freezer seems to hold a few pretty reliably.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[eggshell]

I  agree WV Flopper about large clear cuts. We done some purely to regenerate some undesirable timber stands and for wildlife habitat, but we kept them to 10 acres or less.

I don't think the turkeys permanently leave over ATVS but I believe it may affect them enough to influence nesting or use of an area. The property that lays directly behind my house is a good example. It's a continuous block of approximately 2,000 acres unbroken forest. For years a neighbor and his kids raced dirt bikes and ATVs. They invited many friends to freely ride this woods and every day you could hear loud ATVs running. Weekends were awful, and there was no peace in the country. I fought with them to keep them off my place constantly. You absolutely never heard spring gobblers from my house. You would see turkeys during deep winter and some sizable flocks. There was very little riding during hard winter months. By March they were back and the turkeys were seen less and less.

Well his kids grew up and he died of cancer and a new landowner took over the land. In addition, that landowner leased the land to hunters and the ATV traffic got shut down. Now I can sit on my deck in early spring and hear as many as 10 gobblers any given day and we see hens and poults every year, none of this was true when it was virtually a public ATV track.

Happy, is your freezer a diverse habitat or a clear cut? Do you maintain one end as a bugging area?

[Paulmyr]

Clear cutts? Don't know what your talking about. Never seen a turkey near a clear cutt.

I have to wonder if your serious or pulling our leg. I hunt primarily Ohio and Kentucky and spring and fall woods adjacent to clear cuts are the honey holes. We have scattered clear cuts all around our family properties and that is the first place I go look for turkeys. Most of our woods are big mature oak, maple, and hickory stands and the birds use these areas for travel, loafing and roosting, but they head to the clear cuts and timbered area to feed.

The use of ATV's has skyrocketed in our area as well. I never gave it much thought until now. I could see where ATV use could spook hens off nests. Is it a big factor? Possibly, it maybe just a part of the over all picture regarding the decline in turkey numbers in certain areas. Interesting concept for sure.

[Greg Massey]

 Turkey habitat is were turkey's want to be for the most part, after the spring breakup that habitat will change completely.  Turkey's have a way of communicating among themselves as this breakup occurs, during all of this turkeys will go to places that you haven't seen any sign of a turkeys before the spring breakup, it's all about the matting order of these birds. IMO.. SO regardless of the habitat you can hold turkey's all winter and lose that flock during the spring. Not in all cases but in most cases ... IMO..  If you have never witnessed a spring flock breakup, you have really miss out on something very special in my opinion.  This is old times opinion..

[tracker vi]

100 % agree on ATVs .

[WV Flopper]

 Those big winter flocks in the mid West would be something to watch and follow. Much more visible than our local turkeys, but the same thing happens every year.