First, to find where they sleep. Roosting sites often consist of heavier wooded terrain (most frequently hardwoods or older pine trees) with an adjacent opening. This can be the side of an ag field, an open ridge top knoll, or as simply a clearing in amongst some hardwoods. Birds prefer to roost as high as they can conveniently reach without much effort, so finding them of the edge of a ridge in some adjacent trees is not uncommon. After the birds have moved away during mid morning, you can get in closer where you have heard them and look for droppings (larger J shaped ones frequently indicate gobbler), feathers and tracks to nail down the exact location. If you can get within 100 yards of of this spot in the morning, you have a fairly good chance of calling in an anxious tom right off the roost.
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The birds will mingle for a short while, often heading first for a food source. Look for open areas most commonly this time of year as they will be feeding on insects (especially this year with the warm up) and seeds. These areas also double as strutting areas and can be excellent places to head if the roost doesn't connect you with a tom.
If the predictions of early nesting behavior hold true for this year, hens will shortly leave the toms and head to their nests in deeper cover. Normally this takes place late morning or early afternoon. Gobblers will often begin roaming at some point during the day, using edges to travel from field to field, looking for food and hens that may not have been breed yet.This is a great time to be in the woods during hunting season, because you have the place to yourself with a bunch of lonely birds. During season, you can choose from two tactics: keep moving to hit on a hot bird OR head back to the spot you called from in the morning. The first gives you a great opportunity to cover new ground and maybe hit on a gonzo bird that will be in your lap before you can get out a cutting run. The second keys in on the idea that old tom that followed the hens the other direction this morning remembers where you were, and chances are very good he will come poking around after the girls leave him high and dry.
Afternoons will still find birds loafing and carrying on in the same fields as in midmorning, but they may seek shadier locales if the temps are above the 70's. In hillier terrain, you can also find them in the bottoms in between the ridges when its warm or windy. Wind may also push them into conifers or other evergreens to provide some protection. Rain will have them in the fields eating worms and doing their best to deal with all the sound and movement. This is also an overlooked time to hunt, as the birds suffer from degraded vision and hearing, and are very consistent about their behavior.
Later in the evening, the birds will begin to collect again at their roost sites, often the very same trees they left in the mornings. Look for them here when roosting in the evenings or setup along travel routes here during late season all day hunting. Sometimes an old boy will be going to bed lonely and this can let you know where he's sleeping if you plan to hunt, the next morning or help you connect with a bird at dusk.
As far as sign, look for areas of scratching. In the best scenarios this will look like someone took a rake to the leaves on a hillside. Tracks will look similar to the shore birds you're probabbly used to seeing on the west coast, only ranging from the 2 ½"-4" , larger tracks indicating gobblers. Tracks accompanied by drag marks on either side indicate strutting activity and can make for a great spot to set up.
Simple calling is enough for most situations. If you can master clucks and yelps between now and then on box calls, slates, or push pins, you're in business. Just try to listen to some sound tracks to get a good feel for cadence and frequency of calling. Also , with calling ,don't over do it, just enough to keep them interested.
I hope this helps, and if you have more specific questions let us know. Good luck and let us know how it goes!
