Early Turkey Season Observation: Less Gobbling

I spent 3 days in the woods during the first week of the 2010 Connecticut spring turkey season. One observation I made is that there is less gobbling than normal so far in 2010. I don’t mean that the turkeys are not there. What I mean is that turkeys that are there are tending to keep quiet. I have heard some gobbles. I heard one respond to an owl call at first light. I also had one reluctantly respond to some blind calling I was doing. However, in general, gobbling seems to be down. This makes it more difficult to locate turkeys.


Consider this example:

One recent morning, I spotted a gobbler in a field. He was following a hen moving down the field, so I set up some 500 yards or so down field and made some soft calls. I called to this gobbler for 2 ½ hours as he slowly made his way down to my area. During this time he strutted, flapped his wings, bobbed his head, and did everything short of a ballroom dance, but at no time did he gobble. We spent 2 ½ hours calling and strutting and not one gobble. I ended up not bagging this gobbler, but when I got up to collect my decoys, I say another tom that was just out of my sight over the other side of a small hill. He was also coming to my stand without a single gobble.

I’m not sure why I’m observing less gobbling. Perhaps it’s due to the fact that the season started one week earlier than in past years. Perhaps the weather patterns have something to do with it. Regardless of the reason, this has added another level of challenge to my turkey hunting in 2010.  Keep your eyes open.