Turkey survival

[laker1]

watched a turkey north of Little Falls today and while walking he would sink down than push on and sink again.

It was once said much of north central Minnesota was too fat north for turkeys. Well so far the turkeys have shown that a lot of people were wrong.

I do think this may be the year turkeys take a hit. Hope I am wrong.

[DonBo]

Turkeys are pretty tough critters. Yes, they may have a hard time walking through soft snow, but they have no real reason too do so. They can fly wherever they like.

They can/will spend days at a time up in the tree tops picking buds, just like grouse. True, a very hard, cold, snowy winter will be hard on them, just like all wildlife, but like I said, they're tough birds.

Deer and bird feeders will attract turkeys and give them a pretty good shot at survival.

[laker1]

I wonder how much buds from trees they eat?

I know I see them in the cornfields a lot right now scavenging.

They(DNR wildlife) did a study about 6 years ago in Morrison and crow Wing county and followed the turkeys thru the winter(don't remember the year but remember it was a normal winter as far as conditions)and the turkeys lost significant weight throughout the winter and some of the internal organs sizes and weights were smaller due to winter and starvation.

Yes they are tough birds they really amaze me. It seems this winter because of late hatches last summer,some of the birds are smaller going into winter?

[Borch]

It weird. Two winters ago was almost open and pretty mild here in central MN and we saw a significant drop in bird numbers the following spring. Talk about a let down as we had a pile of birds going into the winter. Seems the predators had an easier time getting their dinner as well.

I'm a bit worried that turkeys and deer will take a hit this winter.