Where do turkeys roost?

[ishiwannabe]

Keep bumping em and they might not hang out for opening day...try to do your scouting from a distance until May.

[KentuckyTJ]

Didn't read the whole thread so I'm sure someone has said this but go out on a real quiet evening and sit and listen. You don't have to be very close to them to hear where they fly up. I doubt they are roosting in the cedars. They tend to like more open larger trees. I imagine you found where they are hanging during mid-day.

[No-sage]

I've got 2 spots where the turkeys roost year after year.  Both spots are near small streams on the high ground.  One is a hardwood roost and the other is a softwood roost.

I agree that morning is the best time to pin point them.  Get out before light on a clear day and you'll hear them. Keep you distance though, because like Jamie said, you'll educate them real fast.

Curt is also right, they go where they want to go.  You need to be where they want to go.  Sit on a high watch, a good distance away and glass them.  Once you find the roost, find out where they go just after flydown.  You want to position yourself so they will pass you by going to their preferred spots.

[adkmountainken]

i have hunted the same area for many years now and the birds i hunt are %90 of the time roosted on a high wooded ledge that over looks a shelf. the other %10 of the time i believe they are still there but just not talking! as has been said, go out early and listen a few days in a row.

[Don Stokes]

In the spring, the flocks you saw in winter will break up and disperse. On my home ground, it's not unusual for there to be no birds on opening day, but they move in with the spring shuffle. The season has been open since mid-March here, but I just worked the first gobbler on Sunday morning. They haven't been here until now. (I spooked him- end of story).

The habitat here is mixed pine and hardwood hills over a cultivated river bottom. They roost in the hills, nearly always near a ridge top. I think they like to get on top of the ridge when they're ready to roost, and fly horizontally to the big branches of a tree that grows down the slope. That way they use less energy getting into the tree. On Sunday, the gobbler was roosted in some big pines, but they roost in hardwoods too. As others have said, if you don't push them too much they return to the same area frequently, but not every night. Imitating a barred owl at last light will sometimes make them gobble from the roost, but morning is more reliable.

It has NOT been my experience that they fly toward their roost when spooked.

Good luck! I'm headed up to Missouri in a couple of weeks, where the beards are thick and the birds are heavy.

[Talondale]

Here are some things I've noticed over the years, ymmv.  Turkeys like to roost in some of the same general areas, though they may cycle through them depending on which roost is closest to where they are feeding come evening as mentioned.  Year after year I set up in the same couple of areas on our farm and have turkeys gobble.  There's a bench in the National Forest that I have had the same gobbler (or a series of gobblers) roosting for three years running.  (obviously I haven't gotten him yet)  I find they also like to roost over water, in pine thickets, and on benches.  Tree preference varies hardwood or pines.  One year I had a jake roosted on a pine limb on the edge of a field.  It was full light and he'd strut back and forth on the limb and gobble but wouldn't fly down.  Usually the gobbler roosts near the hens but not together.  You'll find that frustrating when you have him gobbling on the limb but when he flies down those hens gather him up and head him away from you.  Some people like to get in close to try and prevent this but I find you bump him off the roost if you don't know which tree he's in and can't make a quiet approach.  If there's no hens between him and you  all you have to be is within earshot of him.  They tend to stay on the roost longer in fog and rain or overcast days.  When it's rainy they tend to be in fields.  On windy days they can be in fields or sheltered bottoms.  I think to give them a good field of vision to compensate for not being able to hear danger.

[maineac]

Good advice so far.  I find morning much more reliable in terms of gobbling.  I can rarely if ever get birds to gobble in the e3vening in my area. Also birds  in Maine prefer 10 to 1 white pines to any other roost tree. I have found scouting the week before opening day to be he most productive, and try to get out as many mornings as possible to move around and listen for birds gobbling on the roost.  I find birds to be fairly regular unless disturbed.  Even year to year I can find birds in the same trees if they are near good strutting areas.