Kansas Turkey Adventures

[kansasdad]

Saturday we went west from Wichita in search of sandplums. The first area we went to held exactly zero plums and a little doubting started. Could it be that the plums were once again victims to a late freeze? Traveling towards another spot we were driving down a little two track road when I caught movement just on the other side of the fence. A hen turkey was about ten feet from the car, and as I stopped, I saw what I hoped to see. Poults about the size of skinny quail were running in the tall grass, and then I saw several young turkeys take flight. Most of the birds flew downhill, and by flying I mean "falling gracefully" ( as in Toy Story). I saw another of these poults fly closer to me, landing in the fruitless sandplum bush, and to my amazement flattened itself down, using as it's support a sandplum branch and the second-to-the-top strand of the barbwire fence


Mother turkey seemed barely concerned with my presence, as she kept calling out the "danger, freeze" call to her young. I think she may have been doing the old bird trick of feigning injury,hoping to draw the attention of a predator away from her young, and maybe even lead me away from her now frozen babies. Because this little turkey was following mom's commands, I was able to get a fairly close shot of this young poult.

 

[Southwind]

Did you try Byron Walker? Normally some good spots around Hutch too especially around the sand dunes area. For plums that is. My hot spot for plumbs got sprayed this year and they killed off all the bushes. Nothing like being in the middle of a plumb thicket picking plumbs when it's 100 degrees out.

 

[kansasdad]

We were at Byron Walker. We gathered enough to make a lot of jelly.

Sandplum biology is such a puzzle to me. Some are bush/low growers, some are growing taller than my head. Some patches were totally bare, others had few plums, but they were larger in size, and then some had loads of fruit, and seemingly on the same branch, all of various stages of ripeness. As my main spots were like yours, sprayed and killed or not bearing much fruit, I went to an area in the wildlife area I have never been before to find the best fruit.

 

[Southwind]

You did good, I might have to wonder out there. Normally I have 3-4 people that pick for about ten minutes and then it's all me. But everyone loves the sand plum jelly and I know it's my favorite.

I never have been able to figure them out either, I saw a small thicket this year that had very few but ripe plumbs back in may and other times it can be as late as September before they are really ready.

 

[kansasdad]

Trying to beat the heat I left early for the hayfield featured in last years thread ( http://onyourownadventures.com/hunttalk/showthread.php?t=258728 ) wanting to accomplish two goals. I was bringing my .243 to verify the scope and I were shooting where it was supposed to go, and to pull the memory card from the trail camera.

The swather had not made it to cut the hay yet this year, as everytime the soil dries enough for the machinery to get into the field, it rains again. Walking up the hill from the road, I had to knock down nearly a dozen mega spider webs crossing the footpath. Did I mention yet that I don't like spiders? Peeking around the corner of the tree line I saw a young whitetail looking at me wondering what she was looking at at first, then figured out that I was not a buddy, snorted and flagged her way away.

I got comfortable over the sticks and made sure the brain, finger and gun was going to be lethal this fall (come on lottery, get me my Kansas elk tag!) for critters hooved or clawed. Missing small cause I was aiming small, I felt happy with the results.

Just as I had declared myself still eligible for the USAF marksmanship award, I looked up and saw six turkeys had crossed through the hedgerow and were feeding their way towards me. As the hayfield has a series of terraces in it, once the superjakes disappeared behind a clump of yellow clover and the contour of the field let me move, I made my way towards a hoped for intercept point out in the middle of this large field. I made my way to a very thick clump of Johnson grass and watched these birds feed their way towards me. Now I was really kicking myself for leaving my camera at home, knowing that any pics would be of the "crappy cellphone" variety.

Minutes later, these six had worked there way close enough that I declared them to be in shotgun range. I patted myself on the back for being such a good ninja, and was really enjoying the show of nature doing its thing. The turkeys were picking away at seeds of the tall grass heads, and every so often chasing down a grasshopper as they continued their way down the adjacent terrace ridge. The lead five were know far enough to my left that I had to shift to the right to put myself once again behind the screen of grass I was using to hide myself. In my head I am imagining a scenario how this group or turkeys might randomly decided to feed my way, and I contemplate touching one as it passes by or it least throwing a glove at it just as it recognizes the nearby danger. A flutter of movement to my right reveals a turkey trying to run down a tasty grasshopper meal. He's about seven yards away.

RING RING!! My cell phone text alert sounds off, this turkey stares at the clump of grass and the dark shadow behind it. On high alert, he calls out danger: putt, Putt, PUtt, PUTt, PUTT!! Knowing something is amiss, he heads towards his buddies. They all look at him as if he must be mistaken.......maybe thinking in their little turkey brains, "what are you so nervous about, there nothing out here except seed heads and grasshoppers".

They start to swerve a little more to my left, no longer headed my way. It's getting hot, I've had my fun, and I should be getting the memory card and head home. I stand up and address the turkey flock, "hello boys, thanks for the show". They look at me, themselves, then back at this strange and wonderful turkey ninja suddenly transported into their midst ( thanks again Enterprise and Mr. Scott) and they exit gently stage left.

As you might have guessed, here is the best of the cellphone pics.

 

[Trigger50]

Thanks for all the pics !

 

[kansasdad]

Three hens and their respective broods. One set is considerably larger in size, so I believe they were hatched earlier

 

[kansasdad]

.....bigger ones.....

 

[kansasdad]

....and smaller ones.....

 

[kenton]

Great pics Kansasdad, I saw polts for the first time this year today. Much smaller than the ones you're watching though.

 

[kansasdad]

"My" poults from my suburban turkey haven are growing up. The younger ones are now pheasant sized and the oldest/largest would make you think they are small turkey hens in size unless momma is standing right beside as a comparison.

Big ones.....

 

[kansasdad]

.......and small ones getting bigger.

 

[kansasdad]

Driving to work this morning I detoured through the little horse pasture oasis that has "my" turkeys living high off he hog, fat and sassy. The brood hens and their poults are getting hard to distinguish one from the other. For sure I saw two hens and about a dozen poults working their way down the ditch working out a little breakfast time. These birds are about as human presence tolerant as any domestic birds.

 

[ashersdad]

Love following this thread! Can't wait for Kansas this year. Thanks for sharing your pictures. Looks like the turkeys are doing well.

 

[kansasdad]

It's October 1st, and turkeys are once again on the menu for Kansas sportsmen. Like last year most of Kansas will have a limit of one turkey, either sex allowed. A zone in North central Kansas will allow one more turkey to be taken. In the agricultural fields, there is still lots of milo and corn yet to be harvested, so spotting flocks of birds can be more difficult.

In "my" suburban turkey heaven the three hens and their poults have hung out together most of the summer. I could identify two age groups of poults, with four of the younger smaller group surviving to be seen this morning working their way off the roost and into the horse pasture looking for breakfast. The other older larger poults were congregating along the road picking up grit for their gizzards. These older poults at first glance seem nearly full grown, but I think what I am seeing is near normal leg lengths with as yet underdeveloped torsos. Sorta like a scrawney 10th grader........about as tall as he's going to be as an adult, but there is no muscle mass ( or middle aged dad body going on as of yet).

The bachelor group of super jakes and toms have kept themselves on the other side of the watershed pond. While I have seen them altogether regularly, there does seem to be a group of four boys that pull off the side,to hang out together away from the large group. One of these loner group has some really oddly shaped tail feathers, which makes it easier to ID this turkey from the others.

Fall will have finally thought about showing up in Kansas this weekend as the predicted highs are finally in the mid 60's for the first time since last spring. I am looking forward to getting after these tasty free range birds.

 

[kansasdad]

Bachelor group

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[kansasdad]

Early September "little" poults with mom

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[kansasdad]

Older poults on stilts.

 

[kansasdad]

Picking up some gizzard grit

 

[kansasdad]

Saturday marked the first weekend dayof the Fall Season for Kansas turkey so after I helped a friend put up five miles of new fence in the morning (OK, it wasn't really five miles, my arms and shoulders just felt like it!!) I headed out to the promised land of a Kansas hayfield. This is the field that nestled next to the (currently dry) headwaters of the Walnut river. On arrival at my destination, I drove the county roads surrounding this special place, and found 3 pickups parked along the roadside, and I assumed that there were deer archers getting ready for an afternoon sit.

As I was getting my camo on, another truck came by, and the deer hunter inside asked if I was going turkey hunting, as he saw my shotgun laying on the roof of the car. He told me that he had been seeing a lot of turkeys, but almost none of them had beards.

"MY" hayfield is not really mine, and I know that there are three other hunters that might have permission to be on the land. Philip was out of town, and the two other men are not archers, so I thought I would have the place to myself. I had been told that there was a corn flinger doing its thing in one corner of the field, and as I came over the rise in the hill I found it sitting there just as advertised. My trail camera sits 200 yards north of this baiting station, and as I had time to enjoy the warm fall Kansas day, I just sat myself down at the edge of the hayfield.

As I was trying to find out how K State football was coming along, I looked up to see a truck driving across the field, headed towards the corn flinger. Hunter #5 was coming in to refill the flinger, and renew his corn piles at several points on the field edge. I surprised him as I came out of the field edge, and we made our introductions. He told me that he had killed a doe the night before, and it seemed like it might have occurred in front of my camera. Reviewing over 4000 camera images (the corn pile is doing its work) I didn't capture the kill, but I did get him walking to go look for her after the shot.

August and September pics show quite a few turkeys in the neighborhood. Now I just need to get close to one with a shotgun in my hand.

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I think I have my camera placed to capture some interesting turkey action.

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