The “grounded” turkey concept

I bet he could sell a few T-shirts at the Madison Wis, Fishing Expo Feb 22-24 2008.

So I was out this morning in some very crappy weather to say the least. Very windy, slight rain, and lightning. I got in the blind at about 5:10… and soon thereafter heard a hen clucking from what I thought was the ground. Obviously they should have still been in the roost. Once it started to get lighter I didn’t see a single bird in the trees of the fence-row which has never happened. I never heard a gobble which is VERY out of the ordinary for this area… but then again I couldn’t hear very far with the wind/rain. So I got to talking with my dad about the turkeys being grounded, and he said he’d never heard of this. But that got me thinking that this HAS to be a possibility, right? They’re not going to sleep in the trees with high winds, etc?
Can anyone shed some light on the situation or share an experience?

thank you!
-Luke

Personally, I have never seen them “grounded”. Have seen them in trees, in 45+ mph winds, can’t be fun, but they do it. Heck, that’s only a breeze for the Dakota turkeys.

i personally think that they wouldn’t do that because of predators. Turkeys like open fields during light hours when its really windy because they can see easier than in the woods and predators like to take advantage of those days to sneek up on a flock. I don’t think they would “roost” on the ground

Luke:

You likely ran into a hen that was bred very early, and just laid her last egg to begin continuous incubation. It’s very common for hens to roost on the ground during this time of year if they’re incubating their eggs, which they’ll do for a few weeks. Sometimes, they roost in trees with the other hens and take a break for the night, but for the most part they’re on that nest day and night for almost a month.

This explains why the later seasons see fewer and fewer hens roosting with the toms, making the toms more vulnerable to being called in right off the roost.

Very cool observation, and you’re right, no self-respecting hen would be on the ground at 5:10AM unless she roosted on the ground for the night.

Joel

Good info guys! That brings my curiosity to the max, Joel! She must have been bred I guess… there’s been some suspicious activity back where I hunt with some potential trespassers… I wonder if they were back there yesterday evening and screwed my roosting birds up. I’m going back this evening despite the 20MPH wind forecast… i’ll let you guys know what happens.

thanks!

There are some great reads out there with more information if interested.

Direct citations lead primarily to work done by Lovett Williams in Florida. Here are a few of his:

-WILLIAMS, L. E., JR., AND D. H. AUSTIN. 1988. Studies of wild turkeys in Florida. Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission Technical Bulletin 10.

-WILLIAMS, L. E., AND R. E. PHILLIPS. 1973. Observations on movement, behavior, and development of turkey broods. Proceedings of the National Wild Turkey Symposium 2:79-99.

Perhaps and even better read than just the journal articles is a book which takes many of these articles covering just about everything wild turkey, and puts it into one text:

Dickson, J. G. 1992. The Wild Turkey: biology and management. Stackpole Books. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA.

Joel

thanks Joel… i’ll have to check them out!

-Luke

Great post guys! I learned something new again!

I just learned something too.