Apple grafting done for the year!

[yoderjac]

I finished up my apple grafting for the year today. Most of my bench grafts seem to be doing well. Today I field grafted seedling planted several years ago that had grafts fail. I only had 4 trees to top-work so it didn't take long.

 

[Brush farmer]

Nice! Me too! I’m especially happy I didn’t flush any turkeys on my hike back to the trees since they’re planted very close to my favorite hunting spot. I was a little concerned about trying to keep activity low this close to season but there’s no other way I was going to get the grafts done.

 

[yoderjac]

We still have two weeks until the season begins. My birds aren't going anywhere. We have developed great nesting and brooding cover. The hens are here and the gobblers aren't going anywhere else. If I don't see birds when I'm working on the farm in the spring, it seems like an empty day!

 

[Brush farmer]

I’m fortunate to have a place that holds birds really well largely for the same reasons you mentioned. There is one spot in particular that must be a prime strutting area because the gobblers fight continually for it the whole breeding season. It might be overly cautious on my part but I’m always protective of a spot that has produced a beard dragger so many times for me in the past. I do avoid the surrounding area each year for habitat work until I’m sure the broods are big enough to be lead around by the hen.

 

[yoderjac]

There was a recent study done in VA and WV that included radio collaring gobblers. In addition to the main study (can't recall what that was), since they had them radio collared, they decided to look at the effect of flushing them off the roost. They did this one week before the season so there were no hunters in the woods yet. They looked at how far gobblers traveled between roost sites. The average was about 1,000 yards but it ranged from as little as a couple hundred yards to a couple miles. They divided the gobblers randomly into a control group and a test group. They went and flush the test group from the roost intentionally. They traveled about 300 yards farther (30%) between root sites.

While some turkeys are more mobile, it seems during the spring, gobblers get attached to a particular piece of ground and bumping them doesn't have much effect. I would guess that gobblers seeing people during the day doing habitat work would have even less effect, but caution is rarely a bad thing.
Thanks,

jack

 

[Brush farmer]

That’s good to know Yoderjac! Besides proximity of habitat, feeding area, hens and nesting areas, I’ve been under the opinion that the areas gobblers choose to make their display is in some part instinctual similar to the migration habits of other birds. The neighboring farms have many similar features as my place but they continually use my place to a greater extent in breeding season. They only occasionally travel through the place in winter, but at the first sign of tree buds swelling they feed and roost heavily on my place until well after breeding season.
I do believe that having large roosting trees and a very broken up habitat with open areas, woods, and brush cover all mixed up with plenty of edge zone is a big help. I’ve worked to enhance these structure qualities in addition to what existed. My food source improvements are mostly centered on trees and still too young to have an impact.
We started discussing grafting and bounced into this discussion which shows how interconnected habitat improvement really is. This is one of the reasons this segment of enjoying the outdoors is so addicting, there’s always plenty to learn and consider.

 

[yoderjac]

Personally I think there is a lot of communications and interaction between gobblers and hens before the season begins. I think hens are instinctual in where they choose to locate with respect to nesting and brooding cover. If there is good habitat for this they will find it. Gobblers just want to be with hens a this time of year. I guess that is instinctual/hormonal too. They tend to choose roost sites that have a safety factor and allow them to be heard by hens. I think strut zones are largely experiential although I'm sure there is some instinctual aspect. I think these too are hen driven. Hens typically go to Toms gobbling on the roost. In general, the appearance of hens gives a gobbler confidence to pitch down. From there, he is generally tethered on a string to those hens. He will strut instinctually to stimulate the hens and stay and feed with them off and on as they feed. Eventually hens start squatting for hem and he get lucky. Hens then slowly wonder off to nest and distribute themselves. Hens probably have a few daily patterns and the gobblers remember where they've been getting lucky. When they get separated from hens, they probably go back to these spots and strut. We call them strut zones. He calls them good fortune!

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Brush farmer]

I agree that the hens seems to arrive first and pick up calling activity in the morning and at fly up well before they’re ready to breed. Early season gobbling seems to be randomly located until the hens get more receptive and they hone in on these places.
I’ve had an incident where I was calling to a gobbler still in the tree only to have the gobbler fly to another tree closer to me. I had decoys out but he landed in such a way that he may not have been able to see them. He would gobble, crane his head down to look back under his feet in my direction, but refused to fly down. This went on for over an hour before he finally hit the ground. I did eventually take him but I’d never seen that behavior before.

 

[yoderjac]

I agree that the hens seems to arrive first and pick up calling activity in the morning and at fly up well before they’re ready to breed. Early season gobbling seems to be randomly located until the hens get more receptive and they hone in on these places.
I’ve had an incident where I was calling to a gobbler still in the tree only to have the gobbler fly to another tree closer to me. I had decoys out but he landed in such a way that he may not have been able to see them. He would gobble, crane his head down to look back under his feet in my direction, but refused to fly down. This went on for over an hour before he finally hit the ground. I did eventually take him but I’d never seen that behavior before.

For years I participated in a spring gobbler survey on base. We would start the official survey about 2 weeks before our season begins, and I would start listening a week or so before that. I was just one participant but the survey was conducted over about 60,000 acres and I had access to over 10 years of survey data. I was always amazed at how perennial the roosting locations were. There was some change slowly over time as habitat changed with timbering and such.

These perennial root sites were active year after year. My hunting experience showed gobblers continued to use these same roost sites for 3 to 4 weeks into the season. By that time, as hens were losing interest, they began to move. My guess is that it become more efficient to find a receptive hen by moving later in the season. Hens that have nests destroyed will often re-nest. Early in the season, they seemed to stick to these roosting sights pretty well. Some seemed to roost in the same tree. Others would roost within 100 yards of a central point but would use different trees from day to day.

There are clearly some aspects of terrain/vegetation, and such that make some roost sites productive year after year.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Brush farmer]

Thanks for the info Jack. These behavior discussions really interest me because it translate into how I do my habitat improvements and also how I hunt. The better you know the animals the better you are at both.