catman529
Well-Known Member
Quick backstory...
I live in the greater Nashville area, known for good turkey numbers and good hatches. We are also loaded with coons, coyotes, and every other predator imaginable. Hunting pressure is high too, loss of habitat through urban sprawl is bad, but turkeys keep raising lots of poults every year.
The place I live now, I moved into in 2015. I rent on about 60 acres and the hunting can be good, but the neighbors who don't allow hunting have the best land around.
When I moved here in 2015, there were turkeys everywhere. Me and a couple other guys killed several gobblers and there were always more leftover after season.
Over the past 5 years or so, the local turkey flock has faded away to almost nothing. I've drove around all the back roads many times, looking for turkeys on rainy days, nothing. There's been no development within a mile of my place, the habitat has remained the same. I only saw one gobbler last year, didn't even see or hear a gobbler this year. Just the occasional hen or two, if I was lucky.
Keep in mind, the county as a whole is still loaded with birds. It's just my local area, maybe 1 or 2 square miles, that has seen a huge decline.
Now this spring. In the past few weeks, I've had one Jenny on trail cam with one poult. I also saw two other hens running together with no poults, I think my pet turkeys brought them in. One of those got killed by a car last week. I saved her wingbones, she was a Jenny too, so there was at least some kind of hatch last year.
It has not been looking good for the local population, until today. I stepped outside this afternoon and looked in the back field. I saw turkeys way back, so far I could just barely tell they were turkeys. I grabbed my camera and cut some distance.
I watched two jennies, with at least 10 poults between them, and one adult hen, with 10 poults to herself.
The jennies poults were about quail sized, and the adult hens poults were at least twice as big. I couldn't get a head count on the little ones because of the grass. The big hen for sure had 10 with her.
Anyway, I've been trapping raccoons since winter of 2020 and I am continuing to trap them to protect my sweet corn I am growing. I don't know if that had any effect or not, but I am pumped to see such a good hatch in my backyard.
I don't think raccoons are usually a problem, but if you have seen a decline in turkeys, please start trapping them. It will help the turkeys get back on their feet.
Here's some pics I grabbed from the video I filmed.
I live in the greater Nashville area, known for good turkey numbers and good hatches. We are also loaded with coons, coyotes, and every other predator imaginable. Hunting pressure is high too, loss of habitat through urban sprawl is bad, but turkeys keep raising lots of poults every year.
The place I live now, I moved into in 2015. I rent on about 60 acres and the hunting can be good, but the neighbors who don't allow hunting have the best land around.
When I moved here in 2015, there were turkeys everywhere. Me and a couple other guys killed several gobblers and there were always more leftover after season.
Over the past 5 years or so, the local turkey flock has faded away to almost nothing. I've drove around all the back roads many times, looking for turkeys on rainy days, nothing. There's been no development within a mile of my place, the habitat has remained the same. I only saw one gobbler last year, didn't even see or hear a gobbler this year. Just the occasional hen or two, if I was lucky.
Keep in mind, the county as a whole is still loaded with birds. It's just my local area, maybe 1 or 2 square miles, that has seen a huge decline.
Now this spring. In the past few weeks, I've had one Jenny on trail cam with one poult. I also saw two other hens running together with no poults, I think my pet turkeys brought them in. One of those got killed by a car last week. I saved her wingbones, she was a Jenny too, so there was at least some kind of hatch last year.
It has not been looking good for the local population, until today. I stepped outside this afternoon and looked in the back field. I saw turkeys way back, so far I could just barely tell they were turkeys. I grabbed my camera and cut some distance.
I watched two jennies, with at least 10 poults between them, and one adult hen, with 10 poults to herself.
The jennies poults were about quail sized, and the adult hens poults were at least twice as big. I couldn't get a head count on the little ones because of the grass. The big hen for sure had 10 with her.
Anyway, I've been trapping raccoons since winter of 2020 and I am continuing to trap them to protect my sweet corn I am growing. I don't know if that had any effect or not, but I am pumped to see such a good hatch in my backyard.
I don't think raccoons are usually a problem, but if you have seen a decline in turkeys, please start trapping them. It will help the turkeys get back on their feet.
Here's some pics I grabbed from the video I filmed.
