You're not getting anything skewed from me. I'm giving you current info from our current biologist who currently heads the Texas turkey program...not old info from those who used to work on the project.
Don't know John Burk as well, but know Jason Isabel who is the now biologist in MO over their turkey program. He worked on this project for years as a grad student before moving to MO, and him along with Jason Hardin, and Scotty Parsons, who was our NWTF biologist at the time, used to come speak in detail on the subject at an educational event my chapter used to host at Bass Pro in Pear Land, TX back in 2010-11. Even back then there was an increase in the population around that particular release site in southeast Anderson county.
Also, not only do I have property in Anderson county and have recently heard them gobbling on our neighbors place in the extreme northeastern portion of the county, but am currently talking to a very large number of landowners all along the eastern portion of the county near the neches river while organizing another co-op. There is a large number of these people living there who are actually seeing more and more decent sized flocks of turkeys on a regular basis in area in the eastern portion of the county.
Also, in the southeastern portion of the county in areas near the that original release site you will see some pretty large winter flocks pretty similar to what you describe in Fannin. I've driven through Fannin often and I've never seen turkeys and I drive through hill country even more while going on turkey hunts and although I know there are lots of turkeys in those areas, I seldom see them while driving through until I get to the actual ranch to hunt...that is with the exception of this past spring when I saw a gobbler stop twice to watch for cars while crossing hw 90 between Brackettville and Uvalde.
That said, you can't gauge the number of turkeys or any animals in an area solely just by driving through often or what we think is the better habitat. Even though we've had some hiccups at first with getting them reestablished, turkeys are hardy birds. If an eastern can do well in areas that doesn't have contiguous forest cover like eastern/central south Dakota and some of the midwest states with lots of farm lands, they can definitely survive in some of the scattered forest and tree lined creeks surrounded by grassland or pastures in parts of central Anderson county. Well managed contiguous forested landscapes are just our starting point for birds to get a good start and expand into the other areas.
Don't know John Burk as well, but know Jason Isabel who is the now biologist in MO over their turkey program. He worked on this project for years as a grad student before moving to MO, and him along with Jason Hardin, and Scotty Parsons, who was our NWTF biologist at the time, used to come speak in detail on the subject at an educational event my chapter used to host at Bass Pro in Pear Land, TX back in 2010-11. Even back then there was an increase in the population around that particular release site in southeast Anderson county.
Also, not only do I have property in Anderson county and have recently heard them gobbling on our neighbors place in the extreme northeastern portion of the county, but am currently talking to a very large number of landowners all along the eastern portion of the county near the neches river while organizing another co-op. There is a large number of these people living there who are actually seeing more and more decent sized flocks of turkeys on a regular basis in area in the eastern portion of the county.
Also, in the southeastern portion of the county in areas near the that original release site you will see some pretty large winter flocks pretty similar to what you describe in Fannin. I've driven through Fannin often and I've never seen turkeys and I drive through hill country even more while going on turkey hunts and although I know there are lots of turkeys in those areas, I seldom see them while driving through until I get to the actual ranch to hunt...that is with the exception of this past spring when I saw a gobbler stop twice to watch for cars while crossing hw 90 between Brackettville and Uvalde.
That said, you can't gauge the number of turkeys or any animals in an area solely just by driving through often or what we think is the better habitat. Even though we've had some hiccups at first with getting them reestablished, turkeys are hardy birds. If an eastern can do well in areas that doesn't have contiguous forest cover like eastern/central south Dakota and some of the midwest states with lots of farm lands, they can definitely survive in some of the scattered forest and tree lined creeks surrounded by grassland or pastures in parts of central Anderson county. Well managed contiguous forested landscapes are just our starting point for birds to get a good start and expand into the other areas.
Originally posted by .243 WSSM
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