This Turkey Tuesday is about looking ahead, in this case to the cooler days of fall. It’s hard to think about the cool days of fall when it’s as hot as it’s been, but fall is truly a time of change in the wild turkey world. For one, wild turkeys, regardless of age or sex, will soon begin transitioning from summer to fall ranges – this shift will see them move to parts of their home ranges where hard mast or waste grains are available which will be the primary items on their diet in the months ahead. Two, this shift will cause them to increase the sizes of their home ranges, which can be quite small for many birds during summer. Three, flock dynamics are about to change. The lone toms or small groups you may be seeing now will form larger groups of toms. The brood flocks you may be seeing now are comprised of several adult hens with their collective offspring of both sexes – that’s also about to change. In the days ahead, jakes will separate from these brood flocks to form their own groups – but they’ll stay close to the hen flocks that will be comprised of adult and juvenile hens. These hen flocks will grow as fall progresses, as hens who did not hatch poults join them. Within all of these flocks that will grow in the upcoming months, fall is a time to establish and test dominance hierarchies – as birds begin flocking with other birds they don’t know, scrapping and scuffling to determine who ranks highest are inevitable. The take home is the transition from summer to fall is a time of pronounced change in the wild turkey world.
Photo by Ron Foltz.
