At one time during a recent New York state gobbler season, a sinking feeling dripped angst into the pit of my stomach … and on a beautiful bluebird morning.
After entering the woods at first light at a favorite turkey hunting spot, the blast of a shotgun floated in from a ways off.
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“Well, that’s one bird down.”
A few minutes later, from the opposite direction, “Blam!” followed by another … “Blam.” Now that was definitely a bird down, and finished off with the second shot.
Now I’m starting to get antsy.
The thought surfaced like the old song refrain, “should I stay or should I go?”
“Well, they’re not gobbling here,” said the negative voice on my left shoulder.
“Now just slow down, don’t go so fast … patience,” said Mr. Optimist’s voice on my right shoulder.
“Blam,” another shotgun blast. “Blam, blam, blam,” three more. Bird got away.
That settles it.
They’re gobbling. Wrong place.
Outta here!
Long story short: spun the tires to another ridge a few hills away. Gobbling their fool heads off there as the truck door opened.
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Filled out the second New York tag in an hour on a dominant bird, 1.5-inch spur.
Having fanatically chased toms up one ridge and down another for a solid half century, there is little doubt here that the best time to tag a tom is during what is called a Peak of Gobbling.
And there is usually two each season.
A first peak of gobbling occurs when the toms are first hooking up with hens, here in April.
New York’s gobbler hunting season is timed too late on purpose, starting May 1, to let the birds breed.
However the early youth hunt usually coincides closer to this first breeding/gobbling window. Subdominant toms, low on the pecking order’s totem pole, still looking for love in all the wrong places, are especially vulnerable and regularly get popped during the Youth and into the Regular opener’s first days.
How ’bout the old boys?
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Dominant toms are more likely-than-not henned-up, and are reticent to leave their gals. This behavioral quirk saves them … until later.
When the second gobbling peak occurs, a majority of hens have begun incubating their clutches. Then Old Man Tom demands his lost female company. And he will let the entire world know with his incessant gobbling.
The question is, can we time this gobbling peak so we can know when to be in the woods? Can we figure in advance of the turkey season when this sweet spot, this storied Second Peak of Gobbling will occur?
Poultry researchers have filled library sections and banks of external hard-drives with photoperiodic data and studies on the effect of daylight on avian reproduction. But no predictable models have yet surfaced for a clockwork prognostication of the wild turkey gobbler’s peaks.
State game departments have done gobbling studies, but the results vary greatly from year to year.
Some years, there is only one peak of gobbling, but most often there are two.
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For one thing, we know that the second Gobbling Phase only seems to last for a few days regardless of where the birds are located. Florida’s second gobbling peak would occur in March. Further north in Virginia, it would happen sometime in April, while New York’s would materialize in May.
Spring turkey hunting seasons, determined by their respective state game departments, of course, reflect these changing breeding times as the further south in latitude a hunter travels in the wild turkey’s range, the earlier the birds breed.
Temperature then seems to play a dominant role in the breeding of turkeys.
Hen turkeys lay one egg a day, like chickens.
New York’s wild turkey hens usually lay their first eggs in April and by the time mid-May rolls around, the birds have filled their nest with 10 to 17 eggs.
Of course hen turkeys do not incubate or “set” on the nest until the entire clutch is finished. If they did, the initial egg, the first one laid, would hatch first … and two weeks later, the last would hatch … and the poults would be vastly different in size, not to mention the resultant low survival rate and increased vulnerability.
By setting on that nest after the last egg, it ensures that they all hatch at the same time.
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Further complicating the possibility of a predictive model for a gobbling peak is that we know that all hens do not set at the same time.
If we get an early, warm spring this year, the first Gobbling Peak will occur in mid-April and we’ll get some nice hunts in early May.
But if the upcoming New York spring is cold, damp, with lots of wind and rain, even snow like some years, then don’t look for the second sweet spot of gobbling to appear until the week leading up to Memorial Day.
Oak Duke writes a weekly column appearing on the Outdoors page.
Source: https://t-tees.com
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