"The Maple River and Gratiot-Saginaw State Game areas both have good bird habitat and numbers," Flegler said. "On both of them there is good road access on parts of the areas, and on other sections you can walk for a couple of miles without seeing a road. There's plenty of room for hunters to spread out."

More good news is found in Unit O, according to Albright. Unit O includes Delta, Marquette and Alger counties, and about 5,700 turkeys call that area home. That breaks all previous records for Unit O. Albright noted that turkey hunters are enjoying more liberalized rules for 2007 due to the good populations of gobblers throughout these counties.

Good areas to consider targeting in Alger County are the Au Train Basin State Wildlife Management Area and the Cusino State Wildlife Research Area. The Portage Marsh State WMA in Delta County is another good bet for toms this year.

In Delta County, a local chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation -- the Bay de Noc Gobblers -- runs an extensive winter feeding program. In the winter of 2005, the group counted 4,851 turkeys at their feeding sites.

Turkey survival rates in the eastern half of the U.P. aren't as good, and there is little hunting pressure. Wildlife managers have found so few turkeys in the eastern region that biologists don't manage for them.

For more information, contact the Western U.P. Management Unit in Gladstone at (906) 786-2351.

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For additional information on turkey hunting in Michigan, call the DNR at (517) 241-3101. For a map of the wild turkey densities by county, go online to www.michigan.gov/dnr. Lodging information is available online at www.travel.michigan.org, or by calling 1-888-784-7328.