Turkey time.....they're still in the winter flocks in Washington....

[Steve Sutton]

But it won't be long now.......


Winter flock.....

Single Merriam's Tom......

Brothers.....these are Merriams.......notice the color of the rumps........

Another nice drove of Turkeys...

OH CRAP! A fence....somebody find the door!

Where's the door? .... Where's the door?.....Where's the damned door?

Phew....that was a close one.....

Another week and the flocks will start to break up...and maybe this guy will leave me some sheds to find....

Steve

 

[DeWayne Knight]

Very nice photos! The turkey photos are getting me fired up!!!

 

[tgentry]

Steve, do I recognize that barn from the "which picture is best" post some time back?

 

[charlie foulds]

I love pictures of those old weathered barns, and with a flock of turkeys, even better. Birds are Gobbling up near my deer camp ........I can hardly wait..!!!!

 

[Mike Repp]

All these turkey threads are getting to me. It happened again this year, got my turkey permit and its the same weekend as the St Charles decoy show. It happens every year, I pick a different season for the draw and always end up with that weekend! I really want to go to the show since I've never gone before but the lure of turkeys is awfully hard to resist!

 

[TimJ]

Cool turkey photos. I like that old barn.
Is that a new deer photo? Do mulie/blacktails drop their antlers that much later then whitetails?

Tim

 

[Pat M]

I have seen a couple whitetails around here that still have their antlers.

 

[Steve Sutton]

the one in this picture is about 200 miles East of the one before......

Tim...that picture is from February if I remember right.....I did see a buck about that size this past weekend still packing "bone"....thats Eastside and they seem to drop earlier there than here.....the Blacktail bucks in the area won't start dropping their antlers till the first or second week of April......

Steve

 

[Dani]

Lordy there are some really nice toms in those flocks. Really looking forward to the opener this weekend...........

Dani

 

[Capt. Brian Rhodes]

Nice Steve.

So what sub-species are those?

 

[TimJ]

I don't think I've ever seen a horned whitetail past february and around here there are a lot of bucks that drop before the end of the january. Maybe a local genetics and diet thing if Pat is still seeing some WI whitetails with headgear.

Tim

 

[Steve Sutton]

we also have Rio's......

Can be "tough" to tell them apart if all you rely on is the generally accepted though that "white rumps and tail feather tips equals Merriam's", and, "buff rumps and tail feather tips equals Rio's"......these birds are deep in the original Merriams introduction and are a couple of hundred miles from the closest Rio's.....about half will have the pure white of what most think is a Merriams and the rest will be some shade of buff......

Tim, I watched a pair of Blacktails play fighting last week in the yard....I kept hoping that they'd twist and I'd have the easiest "twin pair of matched antler sets" ever......they stayed on through a good twenty minutes of pushing and shoving......

Steve

 

[Al Hansen]

Cool looking barn.
Al

 

[Jeff Reardon]

I saw a big winter flock here this morning with some confused-looking toms. I think the 60 degree weather has them as disoriented as I am . . . .

They were still in a big flock mowing through an old corn field, but every once in a while one of the toms would spread his tail and start to strut. I didn't hear any gobbling, but it won't be long. They were a long way off and I didn't have binoculars, so I couldn't tell if they were all toms and jakes, or if there were some hens mixed in.

Saw my first woodcock dancing tonight, and the barred owls were going nuts just after dark. As warm as it was today, I half expected to hear peepers. Looks like an early spring.

 

[Jeff Reardon]

Same bunch in the same field this morning before work and tonight after work. (Dang, that means there is enough light now to not have to burn the candle at either end of the work day!)

No frost last night, and what was a single loose pack yesterday all focused on food was 4 strutting toms in the corners of the field, with a bunch of hens between them, and a few jakes looking like high school kids who got into the pick-up bar on a fake ID.

Got to introduce myself to my new neighbor and see if he'll give permission to hunt that field in about 5 weeks.

 

[Matt_n_Barb]

It depends....April is late here it starts in Feb,,,smaller bucks seem to hang on longer..but that could be an assumption on my part for the smaller bucks...