Wild turkeys gobble and strut on the south fork of the Teton River
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“There are a ton of turkeys in my yard. You should come and see them,” my backyard neighbor, Randy, said in a voicemail on my phone while I was chasing other wildlife. He lives near the shore of the South Fork of the Teton River about a half-mile from me. He was not at home but had given me permission to wander through his place anytime I wanted.
As I got in my truck I could hear the gobblers gobbling up a storm. As I drove into his yard, I counted 38 turkeys with four toms fanning their tails as they followed the hens. They were headed for the large cottonwoods surrounded by thickets of hawthorn and chokecherry bushes, so I slithered along a fence and down a waterless irrigation ditch to hide.
I was only hidden for about 10 minutes when I heard turkeys north of me, another flock west of me and another bunch to the south. I was surrounded by these big birds and as they got close to each other, the gobblers started running toward each other and got very noisy. Once together, the males including the “jakes”, the younger males, started milling around with 14 large mature gobblers fanning out their beautiful tails.
After watching the males for about 10 minutes, two hens discovered me, sounding an alarm call. The mixed flock moved off about 50 yards before heading single file off into an open meadow. I was able to get a count of 87 turkeys in the large flock as they moved through a hole in a fence. A short time later, I watched as they circled into a tight group with the males on the outside and became very noisy when a coyote came within 50 yards of them.
This was two weeks ago and now I often see small flocks of mostly males because many of the hens have started nesting. The males stay available in case a hen loses her nest and must start over.
Turkeys are not native to Idaho and were introduced in northern Idaho in 1961 by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game when the Merriam species was added as a gamebird. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Rio Grande and Eastern Turkey were added throughout the state.
The crossing of the different species along with mixing with domestic white turkeys has resulted in all different colors and shades. When wild turkeys mix with domestic white ones, the offspring is usually black and white, which are similar to the Royal Palm or the Narragansett turkeys. There is a mixed flock of colors west of Ashton along the Henrys Fork of the Snake River and another flock near the Twin Bridges on the South Fork of the Snake River that contains several mixed breeds. Both of these flocks contain some beautiful white and black birds.
The IDFG now allows both spring and fall hunts. Some are limited permit hunts with a few general hunts where the numbers are great enough to support them. Youth hunts are also popular, especially in northern Idaho.
I have located four turkey nests in my wanderings over the last two weeks. It is amazing how well the hens hide and often, they do not show themselves until you almost step on them. Hopefully, the nests will survive the ditch burning and the wildfires along the area rivers.
