Merriam's Roosting Habits Question

[mcelweed]

I hunt this past weekend and found a couple places with birds roosted, but couldn't get them in (one group went other direction, other bird shot by another hunter). My question is: do Merriam's tend to roost in the same location or are they more nomadic like many other western animals? This is in the Gila National Forest in NM. I'm going back with my daughter next weekend to see if we can get her a bird. Thanks in advance.

 

[Poke 'Em]

I'll go with the answer that always applies: it depends.

Sometimes I find there's no rhyme or reason to where they're roosting. This year, I could plan on there being turkeys in the same tree most mornings, though the number of turkeys in the tree varied...

 

[MThuntr]

I'll go with the answer that always applies: it depends.

The place I hunted in Nebraska as a teenager, the turkeys seemed to prefer a handful of roost trees within a few hundred yards. Now that I've hunted birds in MT and ID, I've noticed there is no rhyme or reason to their roosts especially this year when the woods were silent for miles when the day(s) before it was full of gobblers. They may have been on some sort of rotation due to high hunter numbers or some other unknown factor.

 

[sra61]

My experience is that as long as they aren't molested, they will use pretty much the same general group of trees. If they do work off in a different direction, make sure to go back there to that same location in the afternoon, and set up and just call. That tom will be back to roost and should be fairly easy to get in. He might not answer much if at all, though. I've killed a lot more birds later in the day than at first light. Once those hens leave them for the day they are a whole different bird. Good luck!

 

[mcelweed]

Thanks everyone. The second group I heard were unmolested except for me trying to call them back my direction, then they disappeared.

I did call a hen to about 10-15 yds as she circled me trying to figure out when that other hen was. Every time she started to move one direction I would give a quick cluck or putt and she would turn back towards me. This lasted for about 15 minutes until she lost interest and moved off. Later she walked within 10-15 FEET of me as I took off my jacket and stuffed it in my pack. Apparently she was deaf, blind, suicidal, or all the above.