Turkey's Moving North

[titelines]

Our cabin is a bit north of Duluth and I've begun to see a few turkey's up there in the last few months, then just saw a bunch right along 35 north of Moose Lake on my way home this AM.

I'm not a turkey hunter, so maybe I'm just not "in the know", but I'm wondering if anyone else is seeing more and more turkey's that far north. Anyone hunting them up there with any luck?

[DonBo]

Yes, turkeys are moving farther north all the time. I believe last winters horrible weather slowed that movement down some. Turkey hunting zones run up to Hwy 2. There is no hunting allowed north of Hwy 2.

[Archerysniper]

Yup I have saw them as far as holyoke and Duluth in 1998 when I was working in that area.

[Borch]

There are pockets of birds north of the current hutning zones. These birds are tough and as long as there is an available food source they can access during the winter months they will make it through.

[leech~~]

I seen a flock this fall off hwy 64 on the way to Bemj.

[elevatorguy]

I Have lived in Duluth for about 9 years now and when I first moved here you wouldn't even hear of turkeys. Then about 5 or 6 years ago I saw a few off of 210 by Cromwell and since then I see them alot more. Now I see them on highway 2 west towards floodwood on a regular basis. Also someone was just telling me the other day they saw some north of Duluth. And in Wisconsin also I have seen them all the way to Lake Superior and off of highway 13 right by the Brule river. So they are definitely moving north.

[Muskie456]

I have trail camera photos of them just south of Bemidji. They also had a season on them around Theif River falls last spring. They are amazingly tough

[Gofishleech]

Were they north or south of Akely ?

I seen a flock this fall off hwy 64 on the way to Bemj.

[Scott M]

I've seen them on 64 south of Akeley, also saw some on the west side of Birch Lake by Hackensack. When I lived in Duluth, I saw some around Cromwell. It's amazing how resilient they are.

I know the DNR Madelia wildlife research crew published their findings from a couple winters of diet study up north...the latest thing I found at the HSOforum was this:

Dunton, E. M., J. Fieberg, and K. J. Haroldson. 2011. Living on the edge: diet selection and body condition of wild turkeys in northern Minnesota. Proceedings of the National Wild Turkey Symposium 10: In press.

That should be printed by now, I don't think you can get e-copies.

I did find this snippet in "Reintroduction and Range Expansion of Eastern Wild Turkeys in Minnesota," I can provide the full citation if anyone cares: "Wild turkey expansion has its limits in Minnesota especially as one moves north. Although the presence of agricultural land and waste grain aids survival, they are not ubiquitous throughout northern Minnesota. Indeed, the landscape of deciduous hardwoods and cultivated cropland eventually transitions to glacial scoured terrain and a more subboreal mix of trees such as spruce, fir, jack pine, and aspen, which comprise poor food sources particularly in the "Arrowhead" region of northeastern Minnesota. Snow accumulation also becomes problematic. Snow depths greater than six inches impede turkey movement (Austin and DeGraff 1975). Continuous snow cover averaging 12 inches for at least forty days greatly reduces the birds' ability to gather ground forage even if ample food supplies are available under the snowpack, and often results in starvation or losses due to predation (Porter and others 1980, Schorger 1966, Healy 1992). Consequently, in 2006 the mndnr adopted a northern limit for managed releases that closely follows the fortyday snow line averaging at least 12 inches of accumulation (Figure 9). Currently, the turkey release program has been terminated, but may be reconsidered in the future pending a review of wild turkey population survey information."

[leech~~]

Were they north or south of Akely ?

North! Shhh!

[walleyewalby]

there in crosby ironton as well, shocked when i saw a flock off 210

[surewood]

Have some popping up here and there in my area. (South of grand rapids) Took a picture of a big Tom at my dad's place last spring.

[duck2]

A couple years back I saw a wild turkey run across Route 2 near Bena. Since then, I have not seen or heard any in the area ( I have a cabin on Lech Lake that adjoins Chippewa Natl Forest land) Does anyone know if their range is expanding into the northern Cass County area? It is pretty heavily wooded with only sparse grassy areas. I don't know if this is an impediment to their expansion into this area/.

Thanks

[thatoneguy]

I see them pretty regularly in the Oak Point area, and I saw a tom and a couple of hens out by the Cuba Hill road a few weeks ago. I'm guessing I might be seeing the same group of them, though (at least the Oak Point bunch).

[Borch]

We've seen them around Cass Lake in teh Chippewa national Forest the past 2 summers.

[fsnrod]

My brother works for the Beltrami county highway dept. he sees them all the way up to the south boundry of the red lake reservation and west from there.