It's still early, but has anybody in the south central / SE part of the state been out doing any scouting for spring turkey season yet and seen/heard birds?  I was out doing a bit of walking around trying to get the lay of the land on a few state properties yesterday, didn't see or hear anything there or on the various farm fields around.  I'm guessing the cold snap and wind didn't help anything, but if people are seeing birds elsewhere already I don't want to waste time in this area if it's looking to be unproductive.  With my time being limited these days I'm trying to be smart about pre-season scouting, plus it's my first time turkey hunting down in this part of the state so I'm trying to hit a lot of the areas to get a feel for what each one is like.

I'm in NE WI, so things might be different.  Saturday and Sunday were the first days that I've seen Turkey out and moving. I saw one plot with 7-8 decent birds picking at the ground.

Same region, on Saturday I saw several fields with 20-30 birds in them

I'm close to the Vernon Marsh and haven't seen any yet.  When they're out I can't drive 10 minutes without seeing at least 30 of them.

I've seen a few flocks moving around up here in the Nicolet. The hillsides on the north side of east-west highways gets direct sunlight, so the snow is gone there. It attracts turkeys (and deer).

I've got 3rd season this year. After having 1st or 2nd over the past 5-6 years, I've learned a lesson. 1st season up north means hunting with snowshoes. The snow is soft in the April sun... but it's been DEEP. 2nd season has frost coming out of the roads, creating miles & miles of mud. I can navigate easily enough in my Jeep, but I make some nasty ruts doing so. I'm a little more civic minded than to fuck up a road just to shoot a turkey. 3rd season is the "sweet spot" weather wise the past few years, so that's what I applied for. Roads are firming up, and ticks & skeeters aren't bad yet.

I've got a tag for the U.P. this year also, for the first time. There's turkeys galore on my daughter's 62 acres near Watersmeet, which is only half hour from home. Grouse too... wolves ate all the deer there too.

I like the MI licensing system better than WI. My tag is good for the entire U.P., and valid from April 17th to May 31st. Non-residents must buy a "base license", which includes small game, for $151.00. Then additional tags are same cost as residents. Turkey ($15), deer ($20), and fur bearers (coyotes, raccoons, fox etc are $15 - residents don't need this tag, non-res do). So for $201, I can hunt turkey, deer, grouse, rabbit, coyote, coon, fox as a non-resident. Another $7 for a state duck stamp, I can hunt waterfowl too. For what I get for that $208, would cost a MI resident $477.25 to hunt (the same species) in WI as a non-res.

Good, wasn't just me then.  I was around the Tichigan lake / Honey Creek area and since that's not too far from you, guessing it's just a bit early in the season yet.

We have a flock of about 10-12 that wander our neighborhood.

Pretty sure the neighbors wouldn't appreciate if I popped one, though.

Crossbow....