Scat, feathers, dusting bowls, etc. are all icing on the cake for me. There are two signs that tell me there are turkeys around: tracks and scratches. I look in creek bottoms and along roads and tracks. If there are turkeys about, you’ll see tracks in the mud. If these are not forthcoming, I look for scratchings in the leaves. I’m not saying the others are useless, but . . .

Scat and feathers: Turkeys leave them everywhere. They are a great bonus/
Dusting bowls: Around here, they don’t start dusting seriously until after season ends. For dusting, you need bugs. Bugs don’t really start bugging my birds until after the temps get above 70F on a regular basis.

What’s good about tracks is that you can concentrate your search along a structure– creek or road or field edge, and if there are turkeys about, you’ll find a track. A freshly plowed field is a magnet for turkeys, and you can pick up their tracks at the edges.

Scratchings are okay, but they will actually keep for quite a while. Scratching made in December will still be there in March. It is hard to tell sometimes how fresh they are. Tracks on the other hand can be easily read as long as you know about the precipitation pattern over the past 2 weeks or so.

One backup scouting trick I can recommend for my area is to look for clover. In the Spring, my turkeys are big on clover. Their craws are filled with it. If there is clover and their are turkeys, you’ll have scat, feathers and the works all through the patch. If there is lots of clover and no turkey sign, the area holds no turkeys.

The greatest gift you can have in the Spring is one of those slow-approaching thunder bumpers. If you can get out and and listen, the gobblers will sound off in response to the approaching thunderstorm. In 10 years at the farm, I’ve only been able to use this a couple of times. The best seems to be a late afternoon storm or one at sunrise. However, if I knew a storm was coming and I had an area to scout, I’d be out in the truck, driving around listening.

BTW: Don’t do this without a vehicle. You want something safe to dive into before the storm gets too close. Also be careful not to drive out into a field or down a hill or something that will get tooslick for your vehicle to get back out.

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