The turkeys that have been paddling daily through deep, fluffy snow to munch on birdseed behind Chuck Bond’s house in Cleveland Township might be more accurately called Pennamites than Michiganders.
That’s the tale told by Al Stewart, who retired three years ago as the MDNR upland game bird specialist.
Stewart might also accurately be called the wild turkey historian for Michigan because his time with the department dates back more than 50 years. He wasn’t there when the first turkeys were trapped in Pennsylvania and brought to the mature oak ridges of Allegan County to re-establish a population in Michigan, but he sure knows a lot about them.
“Initially we brought birds from Pennsylvania in 1954,” said Stewart, who now heads the Nimrod Conservation Center at Hillsdale College. “At the time those were the best birds available.”
Why the asterisk? Wild turkey populations were decimated through most of the Midwest, including Michigan. The trapped turkeys that would become seed stock for one of the most successful MDNR projects ever were wild … mostly.
“They weren’t 100 percent wild, but they were as wild as we could get. The hens were three-fourths wild and fenced in the mountains where wild toms flew over the fence and bred them,” Stewart said.
That transplant took and resulted in enough turkeys to expand the program with plants near Baldwin and Mio. By the 1980s several states were joining Michigan in proving turkeys were resilient enough to repopulate their historic range and beyond. MDNR biologists arranged to transport turkeys from Missouri and Iowa to southern Michigan.
Wild turkeys are not native to Leelanau County, at least since surveyors mapped out the state. Their notes describe abundant turkey populations south of a line roughly from Bay City to Muskegon. That was a time known as the “Little Ice Age” with severe and longer winters. As winters have grown milder, the range of turkeys has expanded north.
Turkeys naturally feed on mast crops and proliferate on row crops that dominate most agricultural areas of the state.
Turkey populations in Michigan have plateaued and may be depressed compared to past years, including in Leelanau County. “We’ve had peaks and valleys due to a number of factors including winters. That has happened from Georgia to New York to Pennsylvania. We don’t know why exactly. Most of it’s habitat, but it’s weather, too. If we have a cold, wet spring, you don’t have as large of a population increase.
“But turkeys are designed for this,” Stewart said.
The genetics of turkeys first brought to the Traverse City area definitely can be traced to their Pennsylvania forefathers, Stewart said.
“In the 1980s we made a decision to really start moving turkeys, which only travel in a four-to-eight mile radius. It was happening in other parts of the country. The turkeys in Traverse City were moved from Baldwin,” Stewart said.
Perhaps, then, it’s no coincidence that Boyd saw his first wild turkey in the Baldwin area.
“I remember as a kid, with my dad driving near Baldwin when I was 10, maybe 12 years old. We had one run across the road. We couldn’t believe it. We’d never seen one before,” Boyd recalled.
Lifelong county resident Vern Bauer, an avid deer hunter who hasn’t turkey hunted in several years, remembers seeing his first wild turkey while attending Ferris State University in the early 1970s. A few years later he started seeing some in Leelanau County. His son, Jeff, got invited to a Commemorative Bucks of Michigan banquet 30 or so years ago after shooting the biggest wild turkey taken by a young hunter in the state.
Turkeys are both fun to see at feeders and a productive way to introduce young people to hunting, Bauer said.
“They are good for youth groups, to teach kids how to call. It’s a fun sport for kids with less pressure than deer hunting,” he said.
County sheriff Mike Borkovich recalls his time as a conservation officer when a short turkey hunting season opened with a limited number of permits allocated through a lottery system. The hunt caused excitement, and it was a big deal to get a permit.
He was assigned to Antrim County at the time, but his biggest turkey “bust” came after transferring in 1997 to Leelanau.
Wild turkeys, like other birds, require small stones for proper digestion, which is why this time of year they can be found lining plowed county roads. They are also attracted to road salt.
That makes them easy targets for poachers, including the one Borkovich tracked down after he ran over a flock.
“I knew who he was by the description. I went to his house and the engine block on his truck was warm and there were turkey feathers everywhere. I caught him with 19 birds, and there was a bunch that was wounded. That was the best turkey case I ever made,” Borkovich said.
Unlike deer, it’s not illegal to feed turkeys at bird feeders. Some people build “turkey feeders” off the ground and fill with corn that deer can’t reach.
Boyd considers himself more of a turkey watcher than hunter, although he does partake in both activities. With drizzle and overnight freezing temperatures threatening to keep turkeys from scratching for mast, he hopes his bird feeders provide enough nourishment to ensure their survival. He entertained a flock of more than 30 turkeys last month, but mild weather allowed the group to split up.
“If it puts a crust on the snow, they aren’t going to get down there for beech nuts, which I have around my place. They also eat hemlock seeds from cones. I have a crabapple tree in my front yard, and they have cleaned off all the crabapples close to the ground. It looks like a browse line,” Boyd said.
He enjoys watching them come in to feed in deep snow.
“It’s almost like they are swimming in it. They leave a heck of a trail and stay in the same trough as the one in front of them.”
Entertaining.
