I was hunting public land where I have only seen one lone turkey in the 4 seasons I have hunted it. Well yesterday was a different story. I was in a new (to me) area and saw two nice gobblers during the morning, and heard a flock off the in distance. I still-hunted the afternoon until I found what looked like a very nice ambush spot downwind of a scrape.

As the sun began to wane, I heard footsteps...LOTS of them (the leaves were as dry as could be). My heart began to pound and then...TURKEYS. A whole flock...25 birds strong at least. Very cool, but a disappointment. Now I have seen plenty of turkeys in other areas I have hunted, but I have never witnessed them going up to roost. Boy, what a bunch of RACKET! They are extremely loud and fickle. They'd pick a limb but that wouldn't be good enough, so they'd fly off to another, etc. And they take turns going up in pairs it seems, so it lasted for quite awhile.

So, I'm thinking that deer avoid turkey flocks around this time since it creates so much noise it overwhelms their senses. Has anyone seen deer around during a roost? I do think that a single deer came out after this was done, but my view into the area where I heard the deer was blocked.

P.S. Turkeys are crappy flyers. And I mean crappy. I can't tell you how many I saw them smack into big limbs on their way up! Hilarious!