Maine Turkeys Dealing With Cold And Snow

Contributing writer for U.S. Hunting Today, A. Sayward Lamb, emailed a few photos and a brief story about how turkeys in Maine are getting along with the recent cold and heavy snow. Here’s what he said and a few photos to look at.

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Tom: My son Jim, just sent these photos of wild turkeys in his “Mother-in-law” tree. (Actually, it is a Crabapple tree) located within a few feet of the entrance to his home in Oxford, Maine He says that sometimes he has as many as six turkeys at a time in that tree, feeding on the small crabapples.

I just talked with my son Ron, who lives in Sebec, and he has a flock of about fifty wild turkeys who come into his shed at his farm and eat apples that are stored in a bin there. He says that they stay in some evergreens that are located near his farm pond and they feed on burdocks that are located in an adjacent field. Ron says the burdocks are about four feet high, so they stick up above the snow and are easy for the turkeys to reach.He noticed that several of the turkeys have balls of burdocks attached to the feathers on the sides of their bodies, and some of the balls are as big as softballs. He wonders if they are carrying them along to feed on at a later date? My sons tell me the snow is about thirty inches deep, and the temperature is very cold—down near zero some mornings.

Last evening I talked with my grandso, Nathan Morse, who told me he has been hunting this month for partridges with his German short haired pointer, and one day that he hunted it was down to only eight above zero. Is he an avid bird hunter, or what? And yes, he has be able to shoot some birds. He said his dog has been able to point the birds; that have been roosting on the lower branches of evergreen trees. I asked him how deep the snow was when he hunted and he said way up over his knees. One thing for sure, with my short legs, I would need snowshoes to hunt at this time of year in Maine.

Tom Remington

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