Despite a fairly liberal fall season developed to assist in management of turkey populations -- and a spotty 2005 hard mast crop of acorns and beechnuts -- Albright said he believed that this spring, hunters should find even more birds than the 12,000 accounted for in the region last year.

"Our fall turkey seasons, unfortunately, have almost no impact at all on our populations," Albright said. "What impacts the birds up here is winter. As long as the birds have the feeding programs to fall back on when the snows get deep, they'll be there this spring."

More good news is that as of the 2006 spring season, all of Iron County will be open to spring turkey hunting for the first time.

"Much of Iron County, as well as good portions of Dickinson, southern Marquette and Delta County, has good holdings of both state and federal lands," Albright noted. "Turkey hunters who get out there and do a little pre-season scouting should find some very good public-land turkey hunting opportunities with very little pressure from other turkey hunters this spring in the Upper Peninsula."

In the Lower Peninsula, hunters will find it difficult to choose just one "hotspot."

"There's going to be a lot of them, I think, barring an unnaturally bad winter," said biologist Al Stewart. "In mid-Michigan, our wild turkey flocks continue to do very well in Isabella, Midland, and Saginaw counties, and are still expanding in Huron, Tuscola and Sanilac counties as well as farther south in Lapeer, St. Clair, Washtenaw, Livingston and Oakland counties, as mentioned earlier."

Southwestern Michigan -- in particular the counties of Calhoun, Cass, St. Joseph, Kalamazoo and Muskegon -- are also well worth investigating, according to a report compiled by the DNR on Michigan's wild turkey densities. Best hunting opportunities anywhere in central and southern Michigan will be found on private lands, Stewart pointed out.

"Those with Unit ZZ tags, which is open in all of southern Michigan on private lands for the first two weeks of the season -- or the later Unit 234 tag, which gives hunters almost a month's worth of hunting time -- should do very well, as they have for the last few years."

But the lucky hunters who are successful in the state's annual lottery for one of southern Michigan's limited public-land tags should also do well. Hunters with a southern Michigan public-land tag will want to consider pursuing their quarry on state lands such as Waterloo State Recreation Area, which has more than 10,000 huntable acres in Washtenaw and Jackson counties, Pinckney State Game Area in Livingston County, the Allegan and Barry state game areas, Stanton State Game Area in Montcalm County and Dansville State Game Area in Ingham County.