MILTON, Vt. (WCAX) – As winter approaches, turkeys are a common sight throughout Vermont.
“Like all of our wildlife, turkeys are getting ready for winter. So that means seeking out lots of fattening food in Vermont that’s going to be seeds, nuts, berries and corn,” Vt. Fish and Wildlife Biologist Toni Mikula said.
I joined Mikula for a drive in the woods to talk turkey.
“I’m just keeping an eye out in the woods for any gang of turkeys. Usually, they are in pretty sizable groups, usually this time of the year they are starting to gather in bigger groups for the winter,” Mikula said.
Reintroduced to Vermont in 1969 after a loss of habitat and hunting had wiped them out, the social birds can now be seen wherever the food is.
“So if you live in an oak woods and there’s a good acorn crop this year, you’re likely to see them in there. If you live in a beech woods and there’s beech nuts this year, you’re likely to see them. They’re in the cornfields picking up the stuff that was dropped when the farmers cut their corn. It’s an excellent place to look. Apple orchards is another good spot,” Mikula said. “So they like to, especially this time of year, flock up in bigger and bigger numbers. They’re often segregated by sex, so it’s common to see flocks of just hens and poults or flocks of just males.”
With Vermont’s fall turkey hunting season wrapped up, these birds are now focused on winter.
“During the winter, they are seeking shelter from the storm, so more densely forested areas and places that are going to be within commuting distance to those food supplies,” Mikula explained. “As long as there’s not so much snow cover that they can’t dig through it, they will continue to scratch at the ground and look for anything that’s still there that they missed in the fall. So even into December, you can still find them in the woods scratching the leaves, looking for anything that’s under the leaves.”
Click here for more on turkeys from Vermont Fish and Wildlife.