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Just a quick note to say that we saw wild turkeys on our property this week for the first time! We hadn't seen any indication of turkeys for the last two years that we've been there, and we were totally shocked! We heard them first, and could hardly believe our ears!... Two of them, just moseying down the gully.
I saw some too. One in particular caught my eye [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
When I first moved out to the country I looked out across my field and wondered what this big, black, round thing was.... I got closer and here it was a Tom all fanned out. I just didn't expect it.
The next couple years I'd see a smaller Tom, but never any more than a couple hens walking around and I found a skeleton last year [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img] .
This year there are five walking through the field that I've been seeing the past couple of days. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Scratches all over, too. It's nice seeing a little wildlife like turkeys and I hope they establish a decent flock.
They're really beautiful birds. When you see a tom strutting, they almost look artificial, the colors are so vibrant.
Yes they are. I like watching them doing their courting dance, too.
One of my customers just shot a nice Tom in either N or S Carolina. He showed me the pic. He said the guy that owns the property got a 30 pounder [img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] Yowza! His bird had a 10" beard, but I don't remember the weight.... not after hearing about his buddy's bird [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
I saw a 22 pound Rio Grande last weekend and he was huge, sporting a 10 1/2" beard. Would the turkeys in N or S Carolina still be Rio Grande, or would they be eastern or some other? I think the easterns run bigger.
We have an aboundant turkey population. They cross my property every morning and evening. I know where they are at 8 am and 5 pm so hunting them isn't too difficult. I let my son's friend, Brian, bag one the first day of spring turkey season. He's not a hunter. He read on the internet how to hunt turkeys. He borrowed my son's shotgun, bought himself a turkey call and a decoy and sat in the spot where I told him. He sat there a couple of hours and just before I had to leave, I heard him calling like crazy. I heard the turkeys answer him back so I hung around a few extra minutes, but I heard no gunfire. About the time I left the property, he called me on my cell phone all excited because he shot one. I laughed when he told me how the turkeys were running away from him. When he got up and turned around, he had a large tom walking right up to him and so he shot it. The next week, I let a real hunter come in and shoot one. These turkeys are large birds. The granddaddy of the flock is huge. He likes to sit in the middle of the group all fanned out.
On a side note, Brian said a coyote came up to sniff at his decoy. I told him he should have shot it, but he was more likely to hit the decoy than the coyote. Are there no more bounties on coyotes? We have as many coyotes as we do turkeys.