What time do your birds wake up?

[jhoward11]

Got up this morning, went outside and heard the birds hammering. Still dark. Not even getting light on the horizon yet. Got me thinking... how early do you all get out into the woods? At this rate I'll need to be in blind with decoys out an hour before it starts getting light on the horizon. That's probably 1 1/2 hr or 2 before shooting. I'm guessing they can see walk in the dark if they are awake?  Yikes...will be a short nights sleep starting next week.

[fallhnt]

If you're hunting a field and they are roosted on the edge, yes. Be early not late.

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[Bolandstrutters]

Every now and then I'll have one too excited to sleep and let one rip a good 45 minutes before a hint of daylight.  For the most part they start to gobble about 5:40 and fly down right at 6.  I had 3 gobblers fly down in the pitch dark and come in about ten years ago it was absolutely bizarre.  Out in South Dakota I've heard them gobbling as early as 3am. 

[J.D. Shellnut]

Here in la. around daylight some before. Sometimes not at all!!! In tx ive heard them gobble at 5am and that was when I got up they probably had been doing it.

[joey46]

Use a sunrise/sunset app and try and be set up at what is shown as Nautical Sunrise.  This morning actual sunrise was 7am.  Nautical sunrise 6:08am.  If I wasn't set up or standing around in the area we're hunting listening at 6:08 I'd have considered us late.  An owl hoot at Nautical Sunrise often gets a gobble. 

[Yoder409]

Use a sunrise/sunset app and try and be set up at what is shown as Nautical Sunrise.  This morning actual sunrise was 7am.  Nautical sunrise 6:08am.  If I wasn't set up or standing around in the area we're hunting listening at 6:08 I'd have considered us late.  An owl hoot at Nautical Sunrise often gets a gobble. 

BINGO !!!!!!!     

Easter Sunday first gobble was at 6:05........a minute or two off of nautical sunrise.   

[lacire]

Use a sunrise/sunset app and try and be set up at what is shown as Nautical Sunrise.  This morning actual sunrise was 7am.  Nautical sunrise 6:08am.  If I wasn't set up or standing around in the area we're hunting listening at 6:08 I'd have considered us late.  An owl hoot at Nautical Sunrise often gets a gobble. 

We used to call that the crack of dawn, we try to walk in and be set up about a half hour before, that's at the latest.

[kloppy]

This past weekend in VA, they were gobbling at 5:40 am in the pitch black on Saturday. On Sunday, they didnt get started until after 6:20. The weather was pretty similar each day, not sure what the difference was.

[Last Frontier Hunter]

In MN if it's clear out they're gobbling at 5:30. If it's cloudy it's been more toward 6.
When I start hearing Sandhill cranes going, the turkeys usually join in

[High plains drifter]

Every now and then I'll have one too excited to sleep and let one rip a good 45 minutes before a hint of daylight.  For the most part they start to gobble about 5:40 and fly down right at 6.  I had 3 gobblers fly down in the pitch dark and come in about ten years ago it was absolutely bizarre.  Out in South Dakota I've heard them gobbling as early as 3am.

That's true.I have heard very early gobbling in south Dakota.

[28roper]

Go up and hunt in New England in late May, getting in early is next to impossible when they begin to fire up at 3:45 and 4:00 AM.

[Turkeybutt]

At lease 1 or 1.5 hours before dawn or what I call "Oh Dark Thirty". Some call it 'The "Butt Crack of Dawn".
Get there early enough to get set up and comfortable.
If you are "Early, you're on time. If you get in the woods "On Time" you are LATE!

[NCL]

Have heard them gobble an hour before sunrise but for the most part it is usually about 20 to 30 minutes prior to sunrise as has been mentioned

[Turkeyman]

Generally turkeys are not the first birds you'll hear in the morning. Over time I'd say it's 15 or 20 minutes after I hear the first birds I would expect to hear a turkey. Plus as the season wears on and you're into full leaf-out you may not hear one until sunrise.

[GobbleNut]

Don't have a lot to add, except that from what I have seen, Rios and Merriam's seem to start gobbling considerably earlier in the morning than the other subspecies.  They are also more likely prone to gobble on the roost in the evening as well. 
...And as others have said, it is better to be an hour too early in the morning than it is to be five minutes too late...