How are the turkeys acting in the NE Corner?

[skagit]

I am curious if any one has a report on how the turkeys are behaving in the NE corner of the state?  Has the cold weather shut up the gobblers?  Are the birds spread out or staying together in large groups?  This opening week is looking like one we had a couple of years ago, cold and difficult.

[bearpaw]

The last 2 years I had to shovel trails in the snow to my cabins. I don't think I have never had as much grass as is in my yard this early. Almost no snow in the mountains. Birds are acting normal except they are more scattered in more areas around the hills and there are not as many bird numbers as there used to be.

[Hangfire]

I am not seeing the number of birds I have seen in the past years.  The three areas I hunted most last year have not produced a single gobble, track, or dropping this year so far.  I saw a few very large flocks last week, in driving and hiking. I drove from Deer Park to Chewelah last Saturday and did see one little group.

My sister and her family live in southern Pend Oreille county on 300 acres, they heard the first gobblers on March 30.

[yelp]

I talked with one of them the other day...   Then some chick of his showed up and chewed my ass then took him away..before I could ask him how he was doing...   Sorry!  LOL

[GoldTip]

Saw some birds and some sign in my normal haunts over around Kettle this past weekend.  Expected to see more sign, but I believe Bearpaw is right, the birds are more scattered this year than in the past when they have had to congregate around the few mountain area's which have started greening up.   This year, everywhere is greened up.  Didn't really see a decrease in numbers, just smaller flocks and more scattered.

[KimberRich]

Was over there about 30 miles NE of Spokane last weekend for the youth hunt and the birds were gobbling like crazy.  Even during the snow flurries..  But they were all still in huge flocks.  We roosted one group of 80 birds Friday night and when they flew down Saturday morning they all stayed together and would gobble to our calls and showed a little interest but would not break away from the large flock.  There were like 14 Toms at full strut at once..  Was awesome to see but not the best for hunting.  I'm hoping in the next couple weeks they start to break into smaller groups and will be more inclined to come to a call..

[Hangfire]

I finally found a small flock on property I have permission to hunt.  I hiked 2-3 miles this morning listening for birds and never heard a thing.  I did see a quite a bit of recent droppings.  I found 18 birds in a field next to the woods.  There were three toms strutting, but quiet.  I saw one tom mount a hen.  Most of the time, two of the toms were pushing each other around or trying to mount each other.

This private property in Stevens county gets lots of pressure so don't expect much.