| Rio Grande Turkey 2
| The yellow labels tell what aerial photos do not about the ground cover. This is prime Rio Grande Turkey habitat that supports a year round flock localized to one roost. The numbers indicate year round water sources. The key terrain in all of this area in terms of spring turkey hunting are the trees marked as "Roost" and the area labeled "grass". That grass area alone is a large for this region, contiguous stand of tall warm season grasses that provides the nesting cover the Rio Grande Turkey most prefers. The hens will anchor to that grass and the toms will follow.
The year round water sources labeled 1, 2 and 3 appear to be the ones that most influence spring turkey movement as does the surrounding crop fields and tall nesting grass. From observation and tracks it appears the pastures limit turkey movement.
The trees in the far ground are the roost trees labeled on the aerial. The roost and the far pond are across the private land boundary of what we lease. That is the nature of leasing land. You cannot afford to lease all of it and must spend your money where to get the best return. In this case the near pond and grass belong to us. The grass has been beaten down by several winter snow storms and is typically 3 to 5 feet tall. Spring warm up comes early in this country and well in time for the first eggs that grass will be of turkey nesting quality. And, it is the only nesting grass within a mile of the roost.
Rio Grande Turkey tracks in the grass during winter when the food is in the crop fields and no nesting is near. The grass field especially along any edge with a crop field had multiple aged tracks in different directions on top of the earlier prints. |
