It's a busy time of year for hunters of mushrooms and turkeys - and those who enjoy both activities.

NOEL FLOHE displays the tom turkey he took
Monday on the first day of the spring hunt. The
Elmwood Township hunter has also harvested
more than 1,200 mushrooms this year, mostly
"brown-capped" morels.

While Noel Flohe of Elmwood Township has been successful at both, reports indicate mushrooms have yet to flourish and turkeys are somewhat spotty in some areas.

For mushroom hunters, the success can be as much in the walk as in the harvest, said Madeline Houdek of Lake Leelanau.

She recalled days of her childhood while traipsing through the woods searching for mushrooms over 1½ hours last week with very little success. But she was traveling with friends Kay White and Nancy Hunt, making the time well spent.

“It’s kind of early yet,” she believes.

If her father, Larry Novak of Cedar, was still alive, he’d probably know exactly how early. Houdek remembers walking with siblings through miles of woods while growing up. The kids found few mushrooms on their own.

“He’d say, ‘There’s one by right by your right foot,’” recalled Houdek.

The family would fill tomato boxes with mushrooms over a season. One mushroom hunt still has a sweet spot in her memory, when the family happened upon morel heaven.

“Dad could see an opening filled with mushrooms, and told me to come over. I couldn’t see them until I got closer. Then I could see the mushrooms because they were all over. We had more than would fit in our tomato boxes.”

Such finds are even more rare today, and Kasson Township resident Gerald White said may not exist on his property. Despite hampered by a sore hip, he managed to walk to the base of a tree that has historically been a hotspot for mushrooms. Perhaps because of over grazing by deer — that’s one theory White harbors — the area has produced very little in recent years.

His neighbor, a “70-something” with decades of experience in mushrooming, found just one on his last search.

Flohe, on the other hand, is well positioned to supplement his turkey dinner with mushrooms, having taken a tom with an 8¾-inch beard Monday on the first day of his hunt. He had previously harvested 1,212 mushrooms. All but a handful were what he termed “brown-capped” morels, and none were the “white” morels signaling that the mushroom season has progressed beyond its midway point.

The turkey fell with one blast of No. 4s from his 10-gauge. He’s taken toms up to 63 yards away with it.

“I’ve been seeing (a group of toms) right along. I’ve been out scouting them and patterning them,” he said.

So has he ever mixed his turkey and morels on the same serving tray? “I haven’t, but that’s an interesting idea,” he said.

The late turkey season extends until May 31, while the length of the mushroom season is controlled by a higher authority.