It’s mid February and for a lot of guys like me, that means cabin fever. Deer season has been closed for awhile now for most of us and the boredom has started setting in! This time of year bores the socks off me and a lot of other people. The only hunting activities we can really get involved in are shed hunting and predator hunting. If you’re anything like me, you’ll usually bury your head in a turkey hunting magazine and dream about the warmer temperatures of spring and all the great activities associated with it.

One important thing I do to prepare for those days is keep my Reconyx cameras out and monitoring the turkeys. Locating the turkeys this time of year shouldn’t be a problem for anyone. Find the food, find the turkeys. To make things even easier, this time of year turkeys are usually grouped up in large flocks and could even reach numbers in the hundreds! We’ve received several pictures recently of these type of flocks and have shared them with you on our Facebook page. Many of you have asked questions about why the turkeys are in such big numbers and if they will stay like this until turkey season gets here.

Three tom turkeys strutting in Southern Missouri trying to sort out dominance.

During the summer and fall the turkeys will usually be in smaller flocks, mostly hens with this year’s young and other flocks of mostly males. As the winter progresses these smaller flocks will start frequenting the same food sources and by this time of year they’ve combined to make larger flocks. At this stage of the year they are sorting out dominance. The toms will spend a great deal of their time in “strut” trying to display that they are “The MAN!” Observing these flocks can be very entertaining! The hens are going about their business trying to eat and survive the winter, while the toms are fighting, strutting, and doing everything in their power to become “The Man.” Once they’ve established their pecking order and the spring progresses, they will begin to breakup in smaller flocks and begin their breeding season.

It’s always a fun time of year to watch the spring approach and the turkeys begin their ritual! Preparation for turkey season begins now, so be sure to get those cameras out and find the flocks and watch it all unfold!

Daydreaming of long spurs and gobbling turkeys,

Adam