I don't get it

[Vermin93]

This is my first year turkey hunting and this first season has me perplexed. There were good numbers of turkeys in my area 4 weeks ago when the season opened. I know they were there because I bumped some on the roost, I heard them on the roost in the morning, the forest floor was scratched up everywhere and I captured gobblers and hens on 4 different trail cameras in the area. Unfortunately, I was not able to close the deal that week. Fast forward to this week and the situation has completely changed. I've walked a few miles a day and I've only seen 2 hens and 1 Jake all week. I haven't heard a single turkey (hen or gobbler) all week - not even on the roost. They have been silent for 6 straight days. It's almost like they moved out of the area during the past 3 weeks. I haven't seen or heard another hunter in 6 days, so I'm pretty sure that the only hunting pressure in this area is coming from me. Does anyone have any idea what might have happened? Where did all the turkeys go, or is it likely they are still there and just laying low?

 

[catman529]

maybe you bumped them too much? Also their patterns do change during the spring.

 

[catman529]

If there is still fresh scratching everywhere, the birds are there and just being quiet. If you aren't seeing any fresh sign they might have moved to a new area with a preferred food source. For example, one place I hunt there is a bermuda grass field that fills up with grasshoppers and turkeys in the spring. We never see a turkey on this property in the fall. There just isn't a preferred food source in the fall, but when the grasshoppers show up in the spring, so do the turkeys.

I find this interesting because I see more grasshoppers in the fall. I've seen quite a few this spring but it always seems there are a ton of them around harvest season. Maybe different species of grasshoppers prefer different types of fields... I don't know

 

[catman529]

yeah there were a lot of hoppers in these 3 big fields when season opened. I've been there 3 times and only ever seen hens. I think the same group of 6 hens hangs out there and sometimes split up into 2 smaller groups. I've seen them feeding around there and fighting and heard gobblers way off onto private land, but as far as I know, the gobblers don't come into the fields with the hens. Sorry that's off topic but I was reminded of it because of all the grasshoppers I saw there. I'm sure that's what the hens were after, but why were the gobblers staying out of sight?