Wildlife Quiz - The Wild Turkey

Spurs on Mature Tom Turkey

Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) ranks as North America's largest upland game bird. An impressive fowl, adult males or “Toms” can weigh in excess of 25 pounds, while the smaller adult females or “hens” can weigh up to 12 pounds.

Both male and female turkeys posses attractive iridescent plumage but only the males have heads accentuated by red, white and blue colorations. This color pattern is critical for excited hunters to identify during Maine’s spring turkey season to ensure, as in accordance with the law, only male turkeys are harvested. Both toms and hens can grow beards or coarse hair-like feathers that protrude from the chest area. In females, this odd growth rarely exceeds an inch or two and often signifies a mature hen or capable breeder. Hunters are cautioned to use care not to misidentify and shoot these birds. On toms, beards can be quite impressive on mature birds, easily growing to a length of 12 or more inches.

When scouting areas for trophy level toms, hunters look for tracks exceeding 6 inches (length of a dollar bill) as this is usually a good indicator that a mature, trophy sized bird is frequenting the area. Wild turkey breeding season occurs during April and May. Dominant males “puff-up” their bodies, spread out their tail feather into a fan shape, then strut and gobble in an attempt to attract females. Smaller male “toms” and immature “jakes” who attempt to challenge the authority of these dominant males quickly find themselves embroiled in fierce battles for ultimate supremacy over these harems of females. Mature toms grow, on their lower legs, long sharp spurs that it effectively uses to fight off challengers. Once hens are successfully bred, hens construct nests in dense cover to protect eggs from predators.

Poults (newly hatched turkeys) usually hatch after about a month of incubating and tend to leave the nest the day they hatch. Polts grow rapidly on a diverse diet of insects, plants, berries and seeds and within 5-6 weeks become fully capable of fending for themselves. Wild Turkeys have keen eyesight, acute hearing and are agile fliers, making them a challenging and exciting big game animal to pursue. If you have not yet tried turkey hunting I strongly suggest giving it a try and learning more about this impressive avian.

Wildlife Quiz Questions:
1. What is North American’s largest upland game bird?
2. How much does a mature tom turkey weigh?
3. How much does a mature hen turkey weigh?
4. What are the three primary colors on the head of a tom turkey that easily distinguish it from a hen?
5. How can hunters determine the size of a tom turkey based solely on its’ foot print?
6. How long after hatching do turkey eggs hatch?
7. What do polts or newly hatched turkeys eat?
8. How long after hatching can polts fend for themselves?

Wildlife Quiz Answers:
1. North American’s largest upland game bird is the Eastern Wild Turkey
2. A mature tom turkey can weigh in excess of 25 pounds.
3. A mature hen turkey typically weighs about 12 pounds.
4. The three primary colors on the head of a tom turkey that easily distinguish it from a hen are red, white and blue.
5. Hunters can determine the size of a tom turkey based solely on its’ foot print by measuring it with a dollar bill. Tracks equaling or exceeding the length belong to an impressive tom.
6. Turkey eggs hatch after approximately one month of incubation.
7. Polts or newly hatched turkeys eat insects, plants, berries and seeds.
8. Polts can fend for themselves after 5-6 weeks.

Spring Turkey Season 2013

Spring Turkey Season was a lot of fun this year and I was fortunate enough to harvest two nice birds. The first a 20 pounder with a 9 inch beard and 1 inch spurs, shot on May 4th. The second bird was a 14.5 pounder with a 9.5 inch beard and 1/2 inch spurs shot May 11th.

20 Pounder!

Look at those spurs!

Long Beard Beauty

14.5 Pound Bird

Big Boy Tom Lurks the Maine Woods

This photo depicts "Big Boy", a Tom turkey who has been lurking about my favorite hunting spot for the past several years. He is very smart and will immediately run the other way with the slightest off tune calling or upon seeing a decoy. Though many classify him as an mythic animal of legend, I know that he is only a turkey with the brain the size of a pea. Prepare to match wits with me "Big Boy", we will soon see who has the last laugh!

*Please ignore date, I apparently do not have the cranial capacity to correctly set a game camera! Hmmm, perhaps this battle of wits may no go as I had originally planned . . . stay tuned!

Florida Osceolas 2011 – The Whole Story

Battling oppressive heat, fire ants, tornado warnings, stampeding cows, trench foot and a curious panther that stalked to within 50 yards of my turkey decoys, were just a few of the exciting highlights of our 2011 Florida Osceola Turkey hunt. A normal man might ponder why any sane individual would subject themselves to this degree of abuse, in pursuit of game animals with the brain the size of an acorn. What they would be missing is the “unique” challenge hunting public lands in Florida presents to sportsmen.

Now you southern boys are going to have to cut this northerner some slack on these next few statements, lest you be invited to go sea ducking with me on the Atlantic in January while temperatures hover around a balmy 20 below zero.

One thing we have certainly well learned from our past two seasons chasing Osceolas, is that the Floridian jungle is like being on a completely different PLANET compared to the boreal forests of Maine. In Florida, even the simple act of sitting down is a complicated by a laundry list of potentially lethal possibilities. Fire ants, poisonous snakes, spiders and a dozen different plants with venomous spikes are just a few of the horrors that await any sportsman lax about where he places his fanny. Added to these pleasures, was this year’s added excitement of the angry free-range devil cows populating Seminole Ranch. This spawn of Satan, we quickly learned, took great pleasure in charging any sleepy turkey hunters who had the audacity to approach field edges in the early morning darkness. Lesson learned, lit headlamps not only attract moths but also 1500 pound cud chewers. Long will be my fond memory of frantically trying to shut off my headlamp, whilst dodging 25 stampeding pissed off cows and attempting to keep my lower intestine from completing an uncontrollable act. All that was heard in the night’s perfect blackness, by my hunting comrades, were the dozens of heavy footfalls and the frantic yelling of a (rabid) maniac yelling WOAH COW!! Good times, good times! BTW, instantly be considered one of my close personal friends by throwing a steak or two on the grill this weekend!

Throw into this season’s mix, of animal encounters, the unpredictable thunder and lightening storms, tornado warnings and hurricane force winds and you have all of the ingredients of a hunt that will eventually have you delusional, thrusting your arms skyward and screaming at the top of your lungs to God in heaven “Is this all you got”! Not that I would ever mentally digress to that degree of complete loss of self-control BUT I have this friend of a friend and that is all I am going to say.

Seminole Ranch is outwardly an awesome place. Huge fields filled with snowy egrets, hawks and yes, even turkeys are sure to impress. As a hunter, it is easy to scout these massive open expanses and think that shooting a turkey would be imminent. Unfortunately, this could not be further from the truth. Seeing turkeys and getting one to within 40 yards are two COMPLETELY different things and public land Osceola toms are very unwilling to come to a call or set-up of decoys, no matter how convincing you think you might be. I am not going to say it won’t happen, only that it is exceedingly difficult.
Hunters have a MUCH better chance at scoring a bird by hunting roads, hiking paths and routes leading to and from roosting and feeding areas (the massive fields). Using the tactic of hunting pinch points, thoroughfares other natural funnels, to your advantage, you limit the areas that a wily tom can escape. If you are lucky, a gobbler may even wander in front of your barrel with no calling or use of decoys. If you think you can accomplish that task, you are getting the idea of what it is like to hunt Osceola turkeys.

My best chances of scoring a bird, were first setting up 300 yards from another hunter who scored, second being surrounded in all directions by gobbling toms and third stalking a watering hole late morning that contained two hens. Each of these events, were they slightly altered or if fate decided to reward rather than punish me, could have potentially allowed me to score a bird. Unfortunately, time and knowledge of the area were ultimately against me and I now need to determine if I try for the Floridian resident Osceola again next season or head to Texas?!?!.

First Turkey Photo!

After trying for months to capture anything but squirrels, raccoons and house cats on our wood lot game camera, this beautiful hen finally managed to stroll by. While our second game camera had managed to capture some exciting video of a huge tom, this is the first still turkey picture of the Spring . . . and its only about 50 yards from the house! Next assignment, to catch a tom in full strut!

Florida Osceola Turkeys - The Story

Here I am sitting on South West airlines flight 482 flying out of Orlando Florida and bound for Manchester New Hampshire. Having just completed a trip, three years in the planning, to hunt Osceola turkeys. There were several moments on this particular trip that were exciting, stressful and even potentially dangerous. Ultimately, however, all of these elements came together to form the adventure of a lifetime.

This story starts with a friendship that teeters on the edge of brotherhood and with an idea enriched with solid planning that eventually grew into reality. Paul and I first dreamed up the "idea" of this hunt, while sitting in a duck blind on an early October morning. At the time, we both realized that the chances on our dreams becoming reality were close to zero. Such a foreign idea, to actually believe that in a few short years we could potentially be in the Florida swamps chasing the elusive Osceola.

As the years rapidly flew by, Paul and I exchanged various pieces of literature, web sites, maps, etc. and I began to grow more and more excited that the hunt might actually occur. Perhaps one of the strangest conversations occurred at this time around Florida's extensive list of lethal snakes and assorted creepy crawlies. Paul a hater of all thing "snake", had advised me that I probably should pick-up some form of clothing or boots designed to protect my lower extremities against a potentially life threatening bite. As this conversation slowly sank into my conscious mind, I began to seriously wonder exactly what I had gotten myself into. A few weeks before the hunt, a package arrived from Cabela’s containing my new investments in turkey hunting “southern style”. I had to smile, as I pulled the “Snake Chaps” out of the box. Though at one time timber rattlesnakes made their home in Maine, long ago they evacuated these lands along with the Timber Wolf and Caribou. Hunting with lethal reptiles was and still is a strange concept to this “Yankee”.


Bull Creek Wildlife Management Area sits well within the borders of Osceola county Florida and is the home of the elusive Osceola turkey. Of the 5 subspecies, the Osceola is perhaps the most difficult to hunt, typically a quiet bird, possessing keen eyesight and able to completely disappear in Florida's thick growths of Palmetto. To create more pressure on Paul and I, we were going to pursue these birds on public lands. This meant competing against hunters who were much more familiar with the hunting areas and the habits and habitat of this southern sub species of turkey. Even more chips were stacked against us as we were forced, due to work complications, to hunt the second week of the season in a year having one of the lowest turkey harvest since 1988.

Our only gem of wisdom and assistance came in the form of a long time local and lifelong friend of Paul’s named Ronnie. Ronnie is the type of “southern gentleman” that anyone could take a liking to. His mud thick deep southern accent, friendly demeanor and ability to chain smoke cigars had me immediately impressed. Of course, the fact that he showed up at the airport with a cooler full of beer didn’t hurt to perpetuate his rock star status. In the weeks before our arrival, Ronnie had worked tirelessly to pattern birds in several WMAs and scouted likely intercepts to assist us in working birds. Without his pre-work, we would have wasted several days in just trying to work out the logistics.

To get the jump on the "locals" required starting earlier and walking into remote locations within the wildlife management areas to beat the crowds. This meant a 3-mile walk every morning in complete darkness through a maze of swamps, palmetto thickets, sugar sand, alligators, pygmy rattlesnakes, scorpions and other hazards. This journey was made even more interesting, by a noontime return trip with temps ranging from 80-90 degrees Fahrenheit and high humidity that had these two northern boys, fresh off winter, struggling to maintain their composure. By the end of the adventure, Paul and I would both succumb to the introductory effects of heat exhaustion. It was such an odd feeling to experience; with us being much more familiar with COLD related injury and illness rather than HEAT.

Packing for a trip of this magnitude, with so many unknown variables, ultimately ended up with the accumulation of way too much stuff! Easily the best investment in gear was comprises of snake chaps, bug netting and bug spray. The swamps may not have beat the deep Maine wood in late spring for the number of black flies and mosquitoes BUT it was VERY close. In addition, we saw several pygmy rattlesnakes and other unidentifieds that simply slithered into the grass and disappeared leaving us wondering.

The line between public and private lands is CLEARLY identified. A 6 strand barbed wire fence separates the Bull Creek wildlife management area from the much less pressured Mormon properties. It was simple to see that the tom turkeys had also managed to identify this distinction. Setting up on these fence lines we on several occasions attempted to call birds off the private lands and into shooting range. Unfortunately, all that we managed were several hens and a jake that lacked any type of beard (and trust me we looked that bird over for an ½ hour!). It certainly was an act in frustration to hear birds gobbling all morning only to be unable pull them off their harem of hens.

Over the course of the 4 days, we tried several different hunting techniques including tag team calling, hunting separately, still hunting, spot and stalk and setting for hours at likely intersections. As with any hunting situation, the possibility of not managing to fill your tag is always a very likely possibility and this trip was no exception. By weeks end, neither Paul nor I were ever presented with an ethical shot opportunity.

As with any trip to strange locale, differing wildly from your own geographic location, there is a steep learning curve. Perhaps most valuable for next year would be this initial trip. So with all that we learned and experienced what would we do different next year?

(What we learned next!)