Originally Posted by
doetrain
When I saw birds strutting here in Indiana 3 weeks before our adult season last year I was concerned they would be winding down at the begining of our season. This was late April,then I saw several big Toms still struttting the first few days of June. I'm not going to worrie this year if they start early after seeing that,though I'm sure the earlier they start the sooner many of them are done so you get less encounters with love sick Toms.
I've seen strutting in the fall before. Strutting isn't only used for mating purposes. They do it for sizing each other up for peck order as well.
A few years ago, I was set up on a tom in a roost. While waiting on him to fly down, a large hen flew down and was half-strutting around my decoys. I came very close to taking her, but decided to wait. About a minute later, a 21 pound tom flew down (flew directly over top of me..... wooooosh) and tripped over some #5s I threw his way.