Eastern roost study

[GobbleNut]

Again, I find the pictures and info given to be interesting. Further, I do not doubt Mr. Chamberlains credentials a bit. However, I would have to see the full set of parameters used in his work to be able to support the notion that the Eastern subspecies exhibits this roosting behavior as a general rule.  As others have already stated, it can be established as fact that this roosting behavior is not consistent with other subspecies and/or in other parts of the country.

I would hope the parameters he used to come to his conclusions regarding the turkey population he studied were biologically sound.  One of the parameters for any study such as this is to establish a control group.  In this particular case, if the goal is to establish roosting habits of gobblers in the study area, one must first establish a control group that eliminates or "controls" the variables as much as possible.

One of the most obvious variables during the timeline of the study is that it coincides with spring gobbler season.  Hunting pressure is a major disruptor of turkey behavior during that time.  Hence, in order to draw conclusions about the normal roosting patterns of the turkeys in the study area, you would have to be studying a group of turkeys that are not being hunted.  I don't know if his study was done in an unhunted population of birds or not, but if it was not, there is no way he could conclude that the roosting behavior he documented was "normal" or if was possibly caused by human hunting pressure.

[Spitten and drummen]

This data was given off one bird. Anyone that turkey hunts long enough knows that no 2 birds act the same. If you believe his theory about a gobbler never roosting in the same place 2 nights in a row then thats your right. I have a spot that you can hear a bird gobbling from the same roosting spot all season. I must have a lot more gobblers on my place than what I thought. There must be about a dozen gobblers alternating sleeping there. All of them are pretty slick too , because they act the same. Gobble 2 or 3 times , hit the ground and cruise around drumming all morning.

[falltoms]

Actually,  I'm kind of surprised , the roost area isn't bigger

[Spurs Up]

I think he simply presented this as an example, not some inviolate absolute rule that applies to every turkey everywhere. We can all think of exceptions.

[Paulmyr]

You guys kill me. This is just one bird in the study. It's a Facebook post. He obviously isn't going to post the data from all the gobblers in his study. He was using this as an example of what his over all research has proven.This is specific to his research of eastern turkeys only. He states in the podcast that good roosting sites vary the degree that gobblers change roost sites.  1 gobbler for every three miles is tough and this podcast goes along ways to explaining why that may have happened in your area.

[Paulmyr]

Sorry guys misspoke in this post so I deleted it.

[Paulmyr]

Looking at this from a "turkey biologist" standpoint, my immediate concern would be how this amount of variation would impact breeding and nesting.  With this amount of roost disruption,...and if it was indeed related to hunting pressure as I would suspect,....I would want to be absolutely certain that the population had ample time to breed before starting the hunting season.

He goes into hunting pressure and how it effects breeding cycles. I got a feeling a lot of southern boys, if they listen, aren't going to like what they hear.

[FL-Boss]

Those of you that haven't listened to the podcast.. stop what your doing and do it now. You will learn more in a few hours than you ever thought possible.

[Tomfoolery]

I haven't listened to the podcast yet but will. I will also add I can say with 100% certainty I have seen a Gobbler roost on the same ridge 3 nights in a row, and the same Pine tree two consecutive nights. There is no doubt it was the same Gobbler because there was no other Gobbler in this block of woods and when I killed him there was not another gobble heard or new Gobbler tracks on that ridge for the remainder of the season.  Not hard to be sure you are dealing with the same Gobbler when there is not another one around. Some of the National forests I hunt in La are one Gobbler to about every 3 miles and that's no exaggeration.

I can vouch for this.

[Paulmyr]

I haven't listened to the podcast yet but will. I will also add I can say with 100% certainty I have seen a Gobbler roost on the same ridge 3 nights in a row, and the same Pine tree two consecutive nights. There is no doubt it was the same Gobbler because there was no other Gobbler in this block of woods and when I killed him there was not another gobble heard or new Gobbler tracks on that ridge for the remainder of the season.  Not hard to be sure you are dealing with the same Gobbler when there is not another one around. Some of the National forests I hunt in La are one Gobbler to about every 3 miles and that's no exaggeration.

I can vouch for this.

In 30 years of hunting in 5 different states from the deep South to northern Mn hunting heavily pressured birds to areas where pressured was almost nonexistent I can say with out a doubt Dr . Chamberlain's explanation of changing roost sites is the the norm and not the exception where I have hunted. Will there be cases where you find a bird roosting in one location more than one night at time. I'm sure there is. In my experience hunting areas that aren't loaded with Tom's and it is somewhat possible to track individual or small groups of birds it is not typical behavior. They will be here today gone tomarrow. Sometimes the move is a couple hundred yds sometimes over a mile. Rarely do they roost in the same tree or close to it.

[owlhoot]

Hunted some pasture and farm country in Northern Missouri for a lot of years. There were some that would roost in the same tree for multiple nights. Most can be consistent roost trees year after year . The gobblers around there move around for miles , we believe searching for receptive hens. But once they find them they stick around for a few days then move on from a quarter to a half mile or so. For every year i can remember the birds move North to south (from bigger timber areas which are no hunting), just a guess as when and how much.

[LaLongbeard]

I listened to the podcast today. The guy never said Gobblers WONT roost in the same spot on consecutive nights he said it is unlikely and I will agree with that. Most of what he said though  Lovett Williams covered in his books. It be real hard to find a subject Turkey related that Lovett did not cover. I think with peoples  aversion to books and only being able to read in small doses with pop up adds for kayaks and flip flops on the screen every 10 seconds, his work will be forgotten and some "blogger" will get credit for basically rehashing what Lovett wrote 20 years earlier. Same with the preferred or dominant males, Kenny Morgan wrote about it 30 years ago and didn't need state funding to figure it out. Just like less Gobbling on pressured hunting areas and Gobblers completely quit Gobbling, anyone with a few years in the SE public game can verify that.
      Maybe people need charts and graphs to believe anything? I know when La moved the season one week later you'd have thought society was ending and I bet .001% of these experts even bothered to read the whys of the move. 

[Sir-diealot]

I listened to the podcast today. The guy never said Gobblers WONT roost in the same spot on consecutive nights he said it is unlikely and I will agree with that. Most of what he said though  Lovett Williams covered in his books. It be real hard to find a subject Turkey related that Lovett did not cover. I think with peoples  aversion to books and only being able to read in small doses with pop up adds for kayaks and flip flops on the screen every 10 seconds, his work will be forgotten and some "blogger" will get credit for basically rehashing what Lovett wrote 20 years earlier. Same with the preferred or dominant males, Kenny Morgan wrote about it 30 years ago and didn't need state funding to figure it out. Just like less Gobbling on pressured hunting areas and Gobblers completely quit Gobbling, anyone with a few years in the SE public game can verify that.
      Maybe people need charts and graphs to believe anything? I know when La moved the season one week later you'd have thought society was ending and I bet .001% of these experts even bothered to read the whys of the move.

I agree, I am reading Book of the Wild Turkey by Lovett Williams and much of it was the same information. I felt even the picture graph looked much like the ones by Lovett Williams and when he talked about aging a turkey by the primary feathers I think it was that was also in Lovett Williams Book of the Wild Turkey. He did mention Lovett Williams as well.

[Paulmyr]

I listened to the podcast today. The guy never said Gobblers WONT roost in the same spot on consecutive nights he said it is unlikely and I will agree with that. Most of what he said though  Lovett Williams covered in his books. It be real hard to find a subject Turkey related that Lovett did not cover. I think with peoples  aversion to books and only being able to read in small doses with pop up adds for kayaks and flip flops on the screen every 10 seconds, his work will be forgotten and some "blogger" will get credit for basically rehashing what Lovett wrote 20 years earlier. Same with the preferred or dominant males, Kenny Morgan wrote about it 30 years ago and didn't need state funding to figure it out. Just like less Gobbling on pressured hunting areas and Gobblers completely quit Gobbling, anyone with a few years in the SE public game can verify that.
      Maybe people need charts and graphs to believe anything? I know when La moved the season one week later you'd have thought society was ending and I bet .001% of these experts even bothered to read the whys of the move.

You seem to take offense towards Dr. Chamberlain's work which I find odd considering he confirms what these writers stated years ago.
I would think as turkey hunters people would be glad there is a guy out there doing the research that needs to be done in order confirm one way or the other the problems facing wild turkeys today.
As most of us know govt agencies don't scratch their butts without appointing a blue ribbon panel of bureaucrats to tell them how to do it. This guy's research hopefully goes along ways towards better management of the turkey itself. I could be reading something into your words that's not there, if so I apologize.

[LaLongbeard]

I listened to the podcast today. The guy never said Gobblers WONT roost in the same spot on consecutive nights he said it is unlikely and I will agree with that. Most of what he said though  Lovett Williams covered in his books. It be real hard to find a subject Turkey related that Lovett did not cover. I think with peoples  aversion to books and only being able to read in small doses with pop up adds for kayaks and flip flops on the screen every 10 seconds, his work will be forgotten and some "blogger" will get credit for basically rehashing what Lovett wrote 20 years earlier. Same with the preferred or dominant males, Kenny Morgan wrote about it 30 years ago and didn't need state funding to figure it out. Just like less Gobbling on pressured hunting areas and Gobblers completely quit Gobbling, anyone with a few years in the SE public game can verify that.
      Maybe people need charts and graphs to believe anything? I know when La moved the season one week later you'd have thought society was ending and I bet .001% of these experts even bothered to read the whys of the move.

You seem to take offense towards Dr. Chamberlain's work which I find odd considering he confirms what these writers stated years ago.
I would think as turkey hunters people would be glad there is a guy out there doing the research that needs to be done in order confirm one way or the other the problems facing wild turkeys today.
As most of us know govt agencies don't scratch their butts without appointing a blue ribbon panel of bureaucrats to tell them how to do it. This guy's research hopefully goes along ways towards better management of the turkey itself. I could be reading something into your words that's not there, if so I apologize.

No you are confused by what you read. I agreed with just about everything he said on the podcast. The POINT I'm making is none of it is new,most of it is 30 years old. Also pointed out a lot of people think this is some new revelation lol,and I think it's because they can't or won't read a book. If Lovett Williams would have been on Instagram you'd all think he was the Turkey guru, which he was.
  It's about like a 8 year old running up too you excited to tell you Santa Claus ain't real...... yea we got it lol.