Wild Turkey Sign

If you find clumps of empty burdock fruits lying on top of the snow, there may well be wild turkeys in the area. During the winter, especially when the snow pack is deep, wild turkeys feed on vegetation poking up above the surface of the snow, such as burdock seeds. There are tell-tail signs when turkeys have been eating burdock, even if no tracks are evident, because of the way in which they consume the seeds. Turkeys somehow pluck the burdock fruits off and then turn them inside-out, exposing the seeds which they then eat. Typically several of these empty fruits will be “velcroed” together, leaving small bunches of them scattered over the snow.

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