When to start scouting Turkeys

For the better part of the past 20 years, we’ve been coming back to Turkey Camp given the following criteria:

1) It’s after the Super Bowl
2) It’s not pouring down rain. It isn’t snowing, and there is no ice.
3) The predicted HI for Saturday is at minimum 50F

I pack a bag and watch the forecast. Some years, that happens in late February. In some years it isn’t until the last weekend of March. The reasons for this are manifold. The biggest of these are safety and comfort. When Cincinnati gets snow, Camp will get ice. When the Camp gets snow, it has a tendency to stay on the roads, because of inadequate snow removal. It doesn’t take much to shut down the whole county. Also, we’re at the far end of the grid, so sometimes the power will be off for 6 weeks at time. Lastly, until the weather starts to warm up, I don’t usually hear much.

So now what? Usually about the first or second week in March, the forecast falls marginally in the limits and we go. I have taken to making that first trip back on Saturday morning. I used to rush down Friday night, but the house is wickedly cold, having sat empty for 3 months. It is better to start Saturday morning. Also, I’ve found it is better to show up in daylight. I never know what surprises I will have when I get there.

What do I do when I get there? Saturday, I’ll usually do some hiking and just get a good feel for how the winter went.

Sunday AM, I get down to serious scouting. I bundle up and go out and sit on the front porch and sip my coffee and wait. When it finally gets close to sunrise, I put down my coffee and let out a big owl call. If the turkeys are back up on the ridge, I’ll get an answer. In fact, I’ll get a chain of gobbles for as far as I can hear. If not, I get complete silence, and I know it isn’t time yet. It usually takes a weekend or two to get an answer.

Hens? If the gobblers gobble, I know it is time to go around to the back of the house and sit and wait. There is always a flock of hens about 200 yards from the back patio that sound off as they’re flying down. If things are really good, the turkeys down in Dead Skunk Hollow will also be vocal. I know that by the next weekend, I’ll be able to hike out at first light and record stuff for a podcast from one of my favorite listening posts.

Here in the Trans-Bluegrass, scouting the birds really does not make any sense until the grass starts to grow. What I mean is that the turkeys are still on their winter feed– still scrounging for acorns when I get back. Once there have been a few warm days– enough for the clover to sprout, they change their behavior radically. Once they can gorge on clover, they come out of the woods and eat as much of it as they can. This is also about the time the winter flocks break up, and you start to see gobblers and hens roosting together in the same groups as they are during season.

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