After a half-century of studying and hunting the bird most celebrated at Thanksgiving, Brian Van Wormer could be called a turkey expert.

But, he doesn’t see himself that way. He’s just a man who loves the sport of hunting, whose mission is to educate others about conserving the turkey population.

Van Wormer, using a couple of live turkeys, spoke at Indian Ladder Farms last weekend about everything from a turkey’s biology to its behavior and he demonstrated how to call turkeys, leading a group into the woods to track some birds.

Van Wormer, who has hunted turkeys all over the world, told The Enterprise this week about his love for the bird and the difficulties of both hunting and preservation.

The art of calling
"I’ve been a hunter since I was a kid," said Van Wormer, now 62. He grew up in Rensselaer in a family of hunters. His father, uncles, cousins, and friends all hunted.

While he’s hunted for waterfowl and big game, Van Wormer’s love is the Eastern wild turkey.

When asked why, he said because hunting turkeys is difficult.
"It’s not like any other game where you can sit and wait for them to walk past you," he said. The key to hunting turkeys is in the calling, he said.

Turkeys have 23 different calls, Van Wormer said. Each means something different, such as: a young bird is lost; a hen is looking for another hen; a hen is looking for a tom; a turkey is content; and a turkey is flying up or down.
"If you’re in the field and you’re an experienced turkey hunter, you know what each call means," he said.

Van Wormer listens and, if he hears turkeys making a certain sound, he mimics it with a call.
If he hears nothing, he might try a coyote call. Turkeys will feel threatened, thinking a coyote is in the area, and do "shock gobbling," Van Wormer said.

He also uses a crow call for the same thing. Turkeys roost in trees, but lay eggs on the ground, Van Wormer said. Crows eat turkey eggs, he said, so, if a hen hears a crow sound, she’ll cry out.
"Once you hear a gobbler, you sit down and keep calling," Van Wormer said. Turkeys can see 300 times better than humans, he said, so the hunter must be very still.
"They can see a fly on a leaf at 100 yards," he said. Some hunters aren’t successful in shooting turkeys because they don’t have the patience to sit perfectly still for long periods, he said.

Van Wormer makes turkey calls, box calls, and slate calls. He collects them — hunting celebrities have signed his calls at yearly conventions — gives them as gifts, and sells them.

Most of the calls are made of hard wood, he said. Mouth calls are constructed with latex, he said, and the tops of some friction calls are made of glass, slate, copper, or aluminum.
"Everyone in the world is making calls now," Van Wormer said. "It’s a multi-million dollar industry."

Hunters wear vests with many pockets so they can carry at least eight to 10 different calls, he said.

Van Wormer learned much about calling by discreetly videotaping turkeys, he said.
"You see how they call and get responses," he said. "You learn what their calls are and how they sound."
Also, he said, "You watch them scratch and look for food and bugs."

A turkey’s primary food is insects, Van Wormer said; the bird will turn over leaves and rocks, looking for a meal.
"They also eat black walnuts and pecans; they swallow the whole shell and all," he said. "The first time I saw a turkey do that, I thought he was going to choke."

International hunter

Van Wormer hunts all over the country and the world; he takes six to eight trips each year, he said.
"Every state is different because of the topography," Van Wormer said. "Some are very flat; some have rolling hills or mountains."

And, he said, each state has its own rules that hunters must follow. When traveling out of the country, Van Wormer said, he has to be aware of what’s allowed, as far as bringing rifles and weapons into that country. He shoots turkeys either with a shotgun or a bow and arrow.
"In most countries, the people welcome Americans because they know that hunting increases the economy and the economy helps preservation and conservation," he said. "Without hunting, you can’t have conservation."

He’s hunted in countries such as Argentina, Greece, and Italy. He’s also hunted in Mexico and every Canadian providence except the Yukon.

In Hawaii and New Zealand, turkeys are easier to hunt because there are so many, Van Wormer said. In those areas, humans are a turkey’s only predator.

While two turkeys are a hunter’s limit during a season in New York, three are allowed in Hawaii and 10 can be bagged in New Zealand.

In North America, there are six species of wild turkey, Van Wormer said.

Killing four is called a slam; five is called a royal slam; and all six is a world slam, he said.
"I’ve harvested in 20-some states," he said.

Van Wormer is a past president of the National Wild Turkey Federation. The organization started small, with three hunters — from Florida, Virginia, and South Carolina, Van Wormer said.

At the turn of the 20th Century, the turkey population was at an all-time low. The three hunters started the federation because they wanted to rejuvenate the turkey population.

Turkeys were a delicacy and one bird could feed a whole family, Van Wormer said, explaining why the population declined.
"The main aim is the conservation and proliferation of wild turkey," he said of the federation.

Little by little, the organization grew as did the number of turkeys in America, Van Wormer said.

Federation members, like Van Wormer, trapped and transported turkeys from state to state, he said. The group also trapped bighorn sheep and traded the animals to Mexico for turkeys, he said.
"The population grew by hunters taking time and energy to trap and transport," Van Wormer said.

When he began hunting, there were no turkeys in the Capital Region, Van Wormer said. He traveled to the southwest part of New York to hunt, he said.

Working with the National Wild Turkey Federation, Van Wormer transported turkeys from Pennsylvania, which had many birds, to New York.

A century ago, the United States had fewer than 100,000 turkeys, he said. Now, New York alone has over 400,000 turkeys.

A guide and teacher

Van Wormer worked as a salesman for years and then owned his own landscaping company and an excavating and trucking business.
He’s retired now, he said, "to hunt and fish."

Van Wormer’s wife and daughter shoot, but only his son hunts with him. However, he has four young grandchildren that may grow up to love the sport.
Of course, Van Wormer said, he eats turkey often. "I have different recipes," he said. "I deep fry it. I make jerky, pepperoni....Like wild meat, wild turkey is very lean. It has almost no calories or fat."

He’s been a licensed guide in New York, four other states, and Canada for over 30 years, he said.

Some hunters have only bagged two or three turkeys in 10 or 15 years, he said, because the bird is difficult to hunt.
"I have a pretty good track record," said Van Wormer, when asked. "Some years I get eight birds."

Lately, however, he’s been guiding two or three young boys or girls during hunting season.
"I give them the opportunity to shoot," he said. "Then, I only get about a week to hunt on my own. But, it’s my turn to pass it on to the youth."
For beginners, he said, "There’s no hard and fast rule about what you have to do first. You have to hunt where turkeys are — and they’re all over."