The spring wild turkey hunting season opens Saturday and it should be a banner year according to the wildlife biologists. The spring hatch was excellent with a high survival rate among the juvenile birds.
The season runs through May 2 and there is a two-week extended season for archers and junior hunters. The bag limit is one bearded turkey per day and a total of three for the season.
Lake County is loaded with wild turkeys. In fact, in many areas people consider them to be pests. Wild turkeys have been in the county for only about 25 years. They aren”t considered a native bird but were introduced into the state more than 50 years ago as a game bird for hunters. The turkey population has since exploded and now they are found in just about every county throughout the state.
Many people consider the turkey to be a unique bird. It has excellent flight abilities and can outrun a dog. However, it is the bird”s behavior during the spring mating season that attracts many bird watchers as well as hunters. The male struts and fans out his tail feathers and his head turns a bright red. The male also gobbles. All this behavior is done to attract a hen.
Hunters attempt to lure a tom within shooting range by making the sound of a hen, which is a series of clucks and putts. The tom will normally respond with a thundering gobble. If the hunter stays concealed he is often successful. However, even the slightest movement will send the turkey running or flying away. Hunters are required to use either shotguns or archery equipment. Pellet guns can also be used as long as they are at least .20-caliber.
Male turkeys are called toms and the females are called hens. An immature tom is called a jake and an immature hen is called a jenny. A jake can be identified from an adult tom by the non-symmetrical tail when the tail is fanned out. The center feathers on a jake will be about an inch longer than the rest of the feathers in the tail. An adult tom can weigh up to 25 pounds.
With rare exceptions a tom will have what is called a beard that protrudes out from its breast. The beard is actually a set of stiff feathers and grows continually throughout the bird”s life. To a hunter, a trophy beard is one that is at least 9 inches or longer. Occasionally a hen will also have a beard but it”s normally smaller than a tom”s. The tom also has spurs and only the tom is capable of making a gobble sound.
All turkeys roost in trees at night. They fly up to the higher branches just before dark. It”s amazing to see a 20-pound turkey sitting on the highest branch in a tree. They are capable of hanging onto the branch in even the fiercest windstorm and will stay in the roost tree until daylight.
The turkey breeding season starts in March and continues through May. Most of the flocks are made up of from 10-12 hens, a dominant gobbler and several young jakes. The jakes usually hang at the fringe of the flock, looking for an opportunity to breed with one of the hens when the dominant tom is busy.
During the day the hens will readily breed with the tom. They will then go off by themselves and lay one or two eggs in a nest after which they return to the flock. When the hen has laid between eight to 10 eggs, she leaves the flock for good and incubates the eggs. The chicks are hatched in 28 days. At the age of about 10 days the chicks are capable of flying to the roost tree and will roost with their mother.
In addition to the hunter, the primary predators of turkeys are mountain lions, coyotes and golden eagles. A turkey can live as long as 10 years but most are lucky to survive five years because of predation and disease.
Lake County has thousands of acres of public land open for turkey hunting, the most popular being the Cache Creek Wildlife Area in eastern Lake Count, which is open this year with no permit required. The Mendocino National Forest also has wild turkeys.
A wild turkey is good eating but is slightly drier and tougher than the supermarket bird. The bird can be either plucked or skinned. One excellent way to cook a wild turkey is to breast out the bird. Rub the breast with butter or place a couple of beacon strips across the breast to keep the meat moist and then wrap the breast in aluminum foil. Cook it on a gas barbecue at low heat for about an hour.
