MILTON, Vt. (WCAX) – As winter approaches, turkeys are a common sight across Vermont.

“Like all of our wildlife, turkeys are preparing for winter. So that means looking for a lot of fattening foods in Vermont, in the form of seeds, nuts, berries and corn,” said Vermont Fish and Wildlife Biologist Toni Mikula.

I joined Mikula for a walk in the woods to talk turkey.

“I just watch the woods for any flocks of turkeys. Usually they form quite large groups, usually around this time of year they start to gather in larger groups for the winter,” Mikula said.

Reintroduced to Vermont in 1969 after habitat loss and hunting, the social birds can now be seen wherever food is found.

“So if you live in an oak forest and the acorn crop is good this year, you’ll probably see acorns there. If you live in a beech forest and there are beech trees this year, you will probably see some. They are in the corn fields picking up what fell when the farmers cut their corn. It’s a great place to watch. Apple orchards are another good place,” Mikula said. “So they like, especially at this time of year, to flock in larger and larger numbers. They are often separated by sex, so it is common to see flocks consisting of only hens and poults or flocks consisting only of males.

With Vermont’s fall turkey hunting season over, these birds are now focusing on winter.

“During the winter, they’re looking for shelter from the storm, so more densely forested areas and places that will be within traveling distance of those food supplies,” Mikula explained. “Until there’s so much snow that they can’t dig, they’ll keep scratching and looking for anything they missed in the fall. So, even in December, you can still find them in the woods scraping leaves, looking for anything underneath the leaves.

Click here to learn more about turkeys from Vermont Fish and Wildlife.

Copyright 2024 WCAX. All rights reserved.