If you're going to hunt turkeys this spring, now is a good time to start scouting the area you will hunt. The turkeys will often be gathered in big flocks that make it easier to spot them, especially when there's snow.
I've been driving some two-tracks in the place I plan to hunt and in the past two weeks have seen a flock of 12-20 crossing the track five times in the late afternoon.
Once I was out of the truck, standing by the side of the road looking at turkey tracks, when the whole flock came wandering through the woods and passed me not 20 yards away.
There's no guarantee those turkeys will still be there when the season opens in April or May, but chances are good that at least some of them will still be around.
Though humans revel in the sight of melting snow, it can be a tough time for animals. Little that is edible has started to grow yet, and turkeys, deer and other animals often spend time seeking out the last of the food that got them through the winter. That means they'll generally hang around areas where they know there is at least a little to eat.
Unlike people, turkeys and other animals rarely just take off over the hill to see what's there. If they have enough food to survive where they are, and they're not getting too much pressure from predators, there's no reason for them to move. If they do go over the hill, chances are they'll either find less food or get eaten.
Turkeys usually use the same routes on their daily feeding rounds, and there's no reason for them to modify that route until something tries to get them.
So if you can find a place where they are moving regularly in the winter, they probably won't be too far away come spring, and you should be able to locate their roosting sites with a few owl or crow calls on April and May evenings.
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