Turkeys aren't what they used to be. They used to be predictable. They used to roost in Southern swamps and eat acorns and duel each spring with guys named Billy-Bob who wore overalls and carried calls made from wing bones or turtle shells or snuff cans or hand-carved hunks of wood.

    But that was 30 or 40 years ago. Today turkeys have emigrated from the South to achieve a form of avian geo-diversity. They are hunted by cowboys out West and by Yankees in New England . They have taken up residence in places once turkey-free. This pattern of migration has spread turkey joy across the country; however, it has also rewritten the rules of turkey hunting. What worked so well for years and years in flat,

dense Southern forests doesn't always hold, particularly in the mountains.
    Turkeys on high are a different game.
    Northern New Mexico, just beneath the Colorado border, is renowned for its elk, bear, mule deer, tortillas and turkeys. The birds are Merriam's turkeys, the Western