Help me figure out what has happened to our turkeys

[Playa]

Historically our place in NE Coleman county has been spectacular for Turkey. I have managed them similar to deer. We take 2-3 annually and pass on jakes, taking only mature toms and a maybe a hen during the fall.

Starting about 2 years ago I began to see a decline in the turkey population numbers. Our place is 1 mile between 2 tributaries of the Colorado, Jim Ned Creek and Pecan bayou. Both have solid hardwood bottom land of oak and native pecan. It wasn’t unusual for the Turkey to migrate to either place during the fall, but come spring they would return to nest & breed.

No real changes to habitat, in fact the addition of a larger food plot is really the only change. Rainfall has generally been average to above with 2019 being spectacular with broom weed growing thick and tall, great for nesting and protecting polts from falcons.

Are we just in a down cycle? Are you seeing a decline? Might I have bobcats decimating the flock? We have always had hogs and really the past few years we have not had as many, they aren’t so populous that they are tearing up nesting habitats.

What in the wide wide world of sports is a goin’ on here???

[Antlers86]

What’s your hog, coon and bobcat population like?

[DUKFVR]

I believe last couple of years have been below normal hatches.

[Playa]

What’s your hog, coon and bobcat population like?

See original post for hog specs. We trap coons regularly. Have seen maybe 4 bobcats in 25 years. I think we had a trail cam pic of one last year. I call regularly on our place. Actually I begin or end EVERY bowhunt with a 20-30 min calling sequence and will call and kill coyotes thru the fall & winter. Have never had a cat come to a prey call or Turkey yelps. Had one coyote respond while calling turkeys about 10 years ago.

[bphillips]

Don’t disqualify skunks as an issue also

[talltexasshoote]

Drought is very tough on turkeys. Lack of insects definitely hurts young turkeys.

[Playa]

Drought is very tough on turkeys. Lack of insects definitely hurts young turkeys.

Been no shortage of grass hoppers and really we haven’t had significant drought. We did have baseball sized hail and apparently a small tornado, but the pops were declining well before that storm and we didn’t find Turkey carcasses in the aftermath

[Johnny Dangerr]

Our biologist told me that when you have a long term flock / flocks of turkeys you will also have long term predators on the place. Our hard rule was if it will hurt a turkey or it's egg kill it on sight...................

[Redraider]

We had a biologist tell us that turkeys were on a bell curve. No matter what you did they would eventually drop in population for a few years then rebound.

Sent from my SM-G781U using Tapatalk

[Kingfisher789]

They’ll be back.

[Fishndude]

Changed their normal route of travel for some reason.

[ACbob]

Fire ants?

[Big pig]

Following this. Same here. We have only seen one flock of hens this year

Since the first of the year on our small 150 acres, I have trapped 16 raccoons and 15 skunks

We have few foxes, but lots of cats and coyotes.
No hogs.
A wet spring would be nice.

BP

[Drycreek3189]

All predators hurt groundnesting birds to some extent, but as others have said turkeys come and go. I had a lease in Runnels Co. for 18 years and some years were definitely better than others even though the amount we took was about the same. The only thing I could definitely point to was rainfall. Same with quail.

[.243 WSSM]

Somebody in the area may be feeding them better and the flocks have transitioned to an easier way of life and dont have to venture far. It's still a little early for winter flocks to start breaking up