Spring Turkey Hunting for
Mountain Merriam's
Call me elated. Spring turkey season has arrived. Once again, the forests hold the promise of adventure, of turkey flocks found and lost again, of talkative hens and silent gobblers, of strutting silhouettes on distance ridges, of a gang of jakes mugging a decoy, of rousing sunrises and sleepy afternoons, and of sitting long periods with your back against the trunk of a towering ponderosa while absorbing the spirit of the forest through immersion.
Before the season ends May 21, approximately 12,000 turkey hunters will venture forth into the forests. The 738 hunters that drew limited licenses this year will look east to the Plains, where they will engage Rio Grande wild turkeys along the narrow corridors of riparian habitat in river bottoms. Rio's are birds of habit, often roosting in the same tree each night and feeding in the same fields by day. Rio's are easy to locate and hunting them is relatively uncomplicated.
The rest of us, however, will buy our license over the counter and head for the hills to match wits with Merriam's turkeys, notoriously nomadic birds with plenty of room to roam. While most hunters realize that hunting Colorado's native wild turkey subspecies on its own turf can be an arduous task, they also realize that the challenges can be met and overcome, and therein lies the adventure.
Merriam's Turkey Hunting
The first challenge when spring hunting for a Merriam's turkey is selecting a place to hunt, which is not particularly difficult considering that Merriam's turkeys now inhabit approximately 19,000 square miles of forest lands in Colorado. A good starting place is the distribution map found on the DOW turkey hunting home page. http://wildlife.state.co.us/Hunting/Turkey/
To narrow the search, Division of Wildlife hunter outreach coordinator and veteran turkey hunter Jim Bulger recommends learning to recognize Merriam's turkey habitat. Bulger has more than 40 years experience hunting wild turkeys. He started when he was eight years old, hunting eastern turkeys in Alabama, and has hunted them ever since. Last season, he was fortunate enough to call in numerous jakes and gobblers while tutoring novice youth hunters in the DOW outreach program.
Bulger said habitat requirements for Merriam's turkeys during the breeding season includes three basic elements; Safety, forage, and nesting habitat. "In general, look for open meadows inside those mountain valleys where you have aspen groves and grassy areas with ponderosas nearby for roosting," Bulger said.
Merriam's turkeys find safety in the upper limbs of larger pine and cottonwood trees, where they roost safely out of the reach of predators.
Wild turkeys are opportunistic, foraging on the forest floor for seeds, grasses, forbs, and insects. Grasshoppers are essential for poults, which require a lot of protein in their diets.
Merriam's hens nest in open grassy meadows where the grass canopy is about 18-inches high. Nest sites often are located near a water source, such as a stream or a pond.
Teller County game units include Units #59, #511, and #581. These units allow spring and fall turkey licenses to be purchased over the counter through any Colorado licensing agent.