Kansas Turkey Adventures

[kansasdad]

Sometimes I get a quick glance of nature in action on my drive home from the office.



Eastside hens and poults working the side yard of a lake house.






Westside poults sitting on top of the construction barrier. Still hard to believe that they do this. Maybe a turkey balance beam contest?






PS: Southwind.......2 blocks west of 127/Central on the south there are one or two pecan trees with branches/nuts hanging over the sidewalk. That's about as good as caring and sharing as I have

 

[kansasdad]

Driving home to beat the cold front and the associated thunderstorms, I saw some of the beauty that Kansas affords. These clouds look pretty from the backside, but underneath there is a Class 3 tornado and heavy hail. Its Kansas!




As I entered the suburban turkey heaven I found that the hens/poults and the boys groups were sharing temproary custody of the town home construction site. Hens/poults on the left, boys on the right. The young ones are quite vocal, something that I have taken advantage of in the fall hunting turkeys as they call back and forth quite a bit, as well as rough housing all day.






The boys were on a mission: picking up some gravel for their crops.





On the other side of the watershed lake, another hen and her young of the year.

 

[kansasdad]

a poopy morning

Sometimes gobblers leave little evidences that they were hanging out in the neighborhood.




I had told the landowner that I was going to attend the "First Church of the Hayfield" Sunday morning. Sadly for me, my trail camera showed a tom triggering the camera at 8:17 am, and I attended the second service which started at 9:30!

I figure that I have one or two weeks left for seeing turkeys on this hayfield, for if they follow historical patterns, they will vacate the premises and head south towards the relative refuge of the bottoms to the south, away from the tree stands and associated ruffians shooting sticks at deer.

 

[kansasdad]

I made a trip to the hayfield in search of turkeys, and found a trio of toms that really didn't want to play any games with me. Traveling along the edge of the hayfield to keep the howling winds from bothering them, they were exiting stage south. Once they passed through the alley made by the storage garage and the crumbling lake house, I made a move to cross the field to try to cut them off before they disappeared into the thick cedars to the south. Happily for them I didn't make contact with these birds.

I sat down on the edge of the dam, figuring that the neighborhood flock might take shelter from the winds by loafing and feeding in the outlet area of the watershed pond. As I was sitting there, I heard a sound that I had never heard before, and finally located the source of the fast moving sound. The belted kingfisher was flying circles around the pond, all the while emitting a staccato series of noise, not too dissimilar from the echolocation sound of a dolphin. This bird landed is several vantage spots along the shore, most of the time quiet, sometimes chattering away with its rapid fire twittering. At one point this bird landed on the most picturesque spot for him to pick, an old tree stump in the middle of this pond, and I thought unkind thoughts about my camera's auto-focus failing to focus past the few limbs in the foreground, and failing to focus on this beautiful bird. He moved off after a few moments, and lighted on the remants of an old dock. Now I'm kinda made at myself for not bringing a tripod to stabilize the camera for sharper telephoto pics.





Admitting defeat once again at the hands of these goofy birds, I drove a big loop of gravel roads surrounding the magical hayfield. Sunning itself in the middle of the road, I stopped to admire the beauty of what I think is an Eastern Milksnake.




He or she seemed to take exception to me touching his tail trying to determine if he was alive or dead.

 

[kansasdad]

The suburban turkeys are hitting the pecan grove hard for food these days. Sharing the grove are lots of tree rats as well.





And speaking of squirrels, here was my view of such a pesky chattering beast who thought it was his job to alert the whole neighborhood that something was amiss in the hedgerow. I maintained enough self control that I only shot laser beams with me eyes and not my turkey load at him trying to get him to move along.





Kansas has a "pre-rut antlerless whitetail weekend" in mid October. Mrs kansasdad said she wanted to go out with me to the hayfield and see about either a tom turkey or a doe whitetail. No turkeys showed up on the hayfield, but at the beginning of the magical last echoes of sunlight, this young buck walked out into the open. The sun was such that it almost seemed as if a spotlight was on his antlers, they glowed so brightly.

 

[Southwind]

I made a trip to the hayfield in search of turkeys, and found a trio of toms that really didn't want to play any games with me. Traveling along the edge of the hayfield to keep the howling winds from bothering them, they were exiting stage south. Once they passed through the alley made by the storage garage and the crumbling lake house, I made a move to cross the field to try to cut them off before they disappeared into the thick cedars to the south. Happily for them I didn't make contact with these birds.

I sat down on the edge of the dam, figuring that the neighborhood flock might take shelter from the winds by loafing and feeding in the outlet area of the watershed pond. As I was sitting there, I heard a sound that I had never heard before, and finally located the source of the fast moving sound. The belted kingfisher was flying circles around the pond, all the while emitting a staccato series of noise, not too dissimilar from the echolocation sound of a dolphin. This bird landed is several vantage spots along the shore, most of the time quiet, sometimes chattering away with its rapid fire twittering. At one point this bird landed on the most picturesque spot for him to pick, an old tree stump in the middle of this pond, and I thought unkind thoughts about my camera's auto-focus failing to focus past the few limbs in the foreground, and failing to focus on this beautiful bird. He moved off after a few moments, and lighted on the remants of an old dock. Now I'm kinda made at myself for not bringing a tripod to stabilize the camera for sharper telephoto pics.


View attachment 63146


Admitting defeat once again at the hands of these goofy birds, I drove a big loop of gravel roads surrounding the magical hayfield. Sunning itself in the middle of the road, I stopped to admire the beauty of what I think is an Eastern Milksnake.


View attachment 63147

He or she seemed to take exception to me touching his tail trying to determine if he was alive or dead.

View attachment 63148

I'm thinking that is a bull snake, I have seen several out on the roads lately.

 

[1_pointer]

Still very much digging your running log of your hunts. Fun stuff to follow.

 

[kansasdad]

In the news this week, Kansas Game and Fish commissioners have decided to not implement a halt to a fall turkey season that would have started in 2017. A concern had been voiced that spring turkey harvest success rates had fallen below 60%, and some people reasoned that halting fall hunting would improve spring success. As voiced by the Wichita Eagle outdoors writer, Micheal Pierce, that assumption flies in the face of hard science. Studies indicate that a well regulated fall harvest has no real effect on springtime turkey populations.

Quoting one of HuntTalk's favorite son's: "its all about the habitat!" The commission heard evidence about how the recent drought events over most of Kansas had effected the last two spring seasons, causing nesting success to plummet in most areas of Kansas, and brood rearing suffering as well.

Another option to limit the fall harvest to male turkeys only was also defeated. Young of the year birds can be very difficult to gender identify in the field, and again studies show that routine, regulated fall harvesting of turkeys does not effect the numbers of spring turkeys.

I am glad the commission listened to the science, and thoughtfully applied reason in reaching this decision.


http://www.kansas.com/sports/outdoors/article109679487.html

 

[kansasdad]

(Bad joke alert.......)

I feel compelled to report some INTERNET BULLYING going on last night. The spirits of JRYoung and Hank Shaw appeared to me in my garage as I was preparing to break down my Kansas fall turkey into scrumptious edible parts, when the specters visited me and commanded me to not make waste of the free range turkey I had so carefully and stealthily ambushed whilst he was on his way to roost last night. "THOU SHALT NOT WASTE ANY MORSEL OF THIS MARVELOUS BIRD" they commanded me, and thus the plucking began. (End bad joke)

This bird was in a group of 25 or so birds feeding in a winter wheat field just off of the public wildlife land (legal for hunting) at a nearby reservoir. A patient of mine had given me a tip about a flock of turkeys that visited his backyard quite often, and he told me where they generally roosted. I told him we should go after them together, and he shared that while he loves to chase pheasants, he didn't think that turkey hunting would be for him.

Arriving a couple of hours before sunset, I had thought that Friday afternoon's adventure would be more one of scouting and determining if the tip had any hunting merit. My youngest was dancing at the halftime of the football game, so I had put a time limit on when I needed to be headed back home. Parking the car in the designated lakeside parking lot, I took a hard look at the map that shows this particular lakes amenities, state park areas, and delineated hunting zones. I found that the little yellow signs that designate the public/private boundaries are woefully lacking in this area, and after taking a little stroll, and seeing this flock of birds 300 yards out into the wheat, I hatched a plan. I was hoping that the birds would head towards the woodlots that surround the lake, with the benefit to me being that the lakeside trees were public hunting zones.




Creeping into position, the binoculars confirmed that the feeding flock was working it way towards me. As I fell back into ambush position, I was guessing that the birds would use the road through the woodlot that the farmer used to access the wheat field, but had set up in such a way that if the flock instead made its way through the middle of the woods, I would have a shooting lane in that direction.






Siting down, I discovered that moments before while at the edge of the woodlot, I had taken my gloves off to use the binoculars and check the time on my phone. Instead of putting my gloves in my pockets, I had instead in my "turkeys-are-nearby" mind fog, dropped them to the ground and left them there. My chosen ambush area was not poison ivy free, and I made the determination that if went back to get the gloves, I might be busted by the approaching flock of birds. As I type this, I will tell HuntTalk that the wrist and face itchiness is worth the final outcome.

Sitting on the ground, and finally hearing one reassuring cluck, I knew that the moment of truth would be coming soon. As expected, the first birds seen were hens. Allowing them to continue down the road, they were followed by several jakes, and a little voice in my head started to yell at me......pick one out and shoot! I believe that I could have waited for the expected lagging behind toms, but I was concerned about the location of the flock in regards to the public/private boundary, and as the young jake had taken a couple of steps off the equipment road towards me, I took the shot. The rest of the flock jumped and cackled, and milled around for nearly a minute before melting away down towards the lake.



Walking to pick up my free range Thanksgiving bird, I saw that he had fallen right in a newly made scrape.








Walking back to the car with a bird on my shoulder, I found my cap laying in the middle of the field where I somehow had dropped it. Turkeys in close proximity seem to just discombobulate my brain just a bit. I considered adding this pic to the "As they lay" thread.







After the football game, I went home and pulled the bird out of the refrigerator and had my "VISITATION" from JRYoung and Hank Shaw. The disemboweling of a turkey can go one of two ways..... stinky or extremely stinky. Fortunately for me, I had the stinky variety. Opening the crop of the jake showed that the wheat field had been yielding lots of green and sprouted seeds and earlier he had dined on finer sized seed heads. Opening the crop totally eliminated all of the previously smelled "stinky turkey guts smell" and instead made my garage smell like a fresh spring day, just after a rainstorm.






I have never had turkey heart, liver or gizzard, so lunchtime today will be a new and hopefully wonderful culinary experience.

 

[kansasdad]

Well, at least there is this regarding the poison ivy..........

 

[kansasdad]

A day late for "No Shave November" honoring, I present the double beard of this young jake taken this fall. This bird and the one taken in the spring are my only double bearded turkeys.

 

[kansasdad]

The meal that I made using the gizzard, heart and liver was quite.......interesting. I loved the gizzard as it had a surprising sweetness to the meat, but was about as tender as expected. The heart was less chewy, with a beefier flavor. The sliced liver was given a good attempt, and later the dogs really enjoyed their treats!!

 

[Southwind]

Well Done KSDAD!!!

Also for the record I am not a fan of Micheal Pierce.

 

[kansasdad]

Tonight I told Mrs kansasdad that we needed to get out of the house, and asked her opinion on what we should do. She suggested we go watch the suburban turkeys fly up to roost.

Rounding the corner, I saw some big boys crossing the cul de sac headed towards one of the favorite cottonwood tree roosting spots. We pulled up just in time to see one of the toms shake out his feathers, wiggle his butt like he had just pooped, and start his flyup run. Gaining speed, employing his wings and hopping into the sir, he rose above the side yard and landed on a medium sized branch. Next to go were a twosome of toms, seemingly headed for the same branch, as the late arriving tom almost landed on his buddies head. Slightly squabbling for the best spot, they settled down as several others came to join up in the air.

All the birds seemed slightly uncertain that they were actually where they wanted to be, as each seemed to shift down or up on the branch that they were currently occupying, or change branches with a hop, or a hop and a wing flap. We even saw one tom raise back up to a full standing stance, and pooped on the tom residing on the branch just underneath.



Photo credit Mrs kansasdad.

 

[bigdonniebrasco]

I'm thinking that is a bull snake, I have seen several out on the roads lately.

That is a Prairie Kingsnake

 

[kansasdad]

kansasson and I went out over Thanksgiving weekend hoping to get his fall turkey. We did the o'dark thirty sneak on the hayfield, and were rewarded with some gentle flydown gobbles. A couple of wise toms came over to check out the "stranger" making noise in the hayfield, but wouldn't come in any closer than 80 yards, which is just too far, especially as we were loaded with steel (trying to be multi-specie opportunists, hoping for some watershed geese to fly over close enough for a chance). I pulled the trail camera card to find almost no turkeys on the card, but several possible green light bucks made a few daytime appearances.

He or one of his harem are welcome to show up for the firearms deer season that starts Wednesday and follows through two weekends.

 

[1_pointer]

That's a good looking buck! Good luck with the deer! And I greatly appreciate the running post/journal.

 

[kansasdad]

It was a nearly windless day in south central Kansas and with minimal cloud cover, the suburban flock was working for supper in the pecan grove. I didn't try to count, but this flock is easily over 40 birds with all age class and gender represented.




It was a blast watching a hen do her scratch, scratch, scratch, put it in reverse, head down, scan for morsels.......rinse, repeat.....





All spring and summer there has been a foursome of big toms hanging together on the west side of the watershed pond. These boys were all showing off for themselves and the ladies.

Gobbler yelping has a much raspier lower tone, slower cadence and seems to be more "complaining" or contentious than hen yelping.

 

[kansasdad]

The arctic blast brought us a record low temp for December 17/18 and brought a few inches of blown snow. "My birds" were universally looking very miserable standing out in the sun trying to absorb some heat. Across the way I saw four or five birds sitting under the branches of a crab apple tree. And up in the branches was a lunging, nearly losing his balance tom searching out little crab apples. Every time he shifted his weight to nab some more food, he had to flare his fan, or flap his wings as the branch he was latched on to bent and quivered. He also sent out a little shower of crab apples to the waiting turkeys, eager to pick up some extra carbs on a chilly Kansas day.

 

[kansasdad]

Driving to work this morning, the neighborhood flock looked like they had separated into two separate groups of birds. The slower to leave the roost were refilling their crops with grit, working over the gravel driveway.





The other half of the flock had already moved into the yard that has the crab apple trees. Some birds were aloft in the branches picking up the little fruits, while others were rushing around to beat each other to the fruits that were being dislodged by the birds above.





Today it seemed that the younger birds were the ones up in the branches.