This past weekend I went scouting in anticipation of next weekend' s opener. In the woods and adjacent fields I will hunt (approx 480 acres, total) at flydown I found/saw a flock of 35-50 hens/toms/jakes, the hens all yelping, the toms gobbling, the jakes and toms yelping. It sounded like a barnyard or turkey farm, the cacophony was so great. I also discovered two " strut zones" --one inside the woods on a semi-open tapered point running down to a stream (3 toms there), and an open ridge between two valleys (4 toms there). I located three separate roost sites. I heard (but did not see) gobblers gobbling at two apparent other strut zone sites, i.e., at locations other than with the 35-50 flock group and the strut zones I located. I saw a second flock of 38 (I counted) feeding in a field, and a third flock of approximately 24.

The roosted birds flew down and spent a few hours walking and feeding inside the woods, and I have seen this pattern before, so I think I know where they go from flydown. What concerns me is that, unless these birds breed like mad in the next five days, I' ll never be able to draw a tom away from the hens, as they must only be starting their spring breakup. Words fail me when it comes to describing the noise I heard in the woods in the morning, from about 6:00 until about 8:30. It was " more noisy" than I have ever heard, mostly hens yelping, some toms yelping, and occasionally the toms would gobble, but the hens were constantly yelping. At any moment, I could easily identify 5 or 6 separate hens yelping, and three minutes later, it would be a different 5 or 6. Gobble here, gobble there, usually multiple gobblers gobbling when I heard gobbling. Sweet, but distressing, as I cannot believe I could compete with the real thing, when there is so much " real thing" . These birds are Merriam' s, but they seem to act more like Easterns. In particular, they don' t seem to go on long walks outside of the woods like many Merriam' s. These will stay in the woods or go to the outside edges/fields, maybe up to 1/4 mile from the woods, tops, and I' ve never seen indications they go on long (2-3-4 mile) hikes. (In fact, there' s another flock that is in woods about a mile away that I hear in the early morning, and they seem to stay over there in their woods, too.)

I figure to roost ' em on Friday, and plan to go in the woods on Saturday and try to simply cut ' em off as they move through the woods, using a couple of hen decoys and setting up in the location of the inside the woods strut zone I found, which seems to be in the path of their " walking in the woods" pattern.

Has anyone ever experience too many turkeys? How did you handle it? Does anyone have any advice? Any suggestions as to a better plan?

I can' t wait to get beat this weekend!! (Or maybe I' ll get lucky and beat them!!)