megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
I only spent 2.5 days in the woods, but was out there for nearly the entire duration scouting even after my morning kills.
The most obvious observation is that birds are significantly larger than in years past. Not sure the reason, but there are some absolute butterballs that I've seen. I'm thinking the wet spring and warmer winter must have produced more forage?
It's also obvious that birds are behind schedule this year. Still large spring subflocks that have not broken up into individual flocks. Hens are not being bred where I'm at, and the gobblers are pretty frustrated.
My third observation is that we evidently had a terrible hatch last year. I found 4 jakes total... not good. I'm sure there are some jake wads around that I haven't seen yet, hoping there's a group of 15-20 roaming around.
And likewise, I've never seen this few adult hens. Even the large subflocks only have 15-20 females, a decade ago there would be 50-60 in the subflocks. This is probably the most ominous sign for the future.
Lastly, gobbling seemed to be significantly less than typical for opening weekend. Usually, birds hammer like crazy, but ignore calls as they follow nonreceptive hens around like puppy dogs. In years past, it was never a problem to get them to shock gobble during the day on opening weekend, but once they hit the ground, they shut up this past weekend. Usually, toms seem to gobble more than usual when the hens are not receptive (to try to bring in another hen that might be receptive) then gobble less when they are with receptive hens. I have no idea why they were talking less (and also less than usual on the roost).
The most obvious observation is that birds are significantly larger than in years past. Not sure the reason, but there are some absolute butterballs that I've seen. I'm thinking the wet spring and warmer winter must have produced more forage?
It's also obvious that birds are behind schedule this year. Still large spring subflocks that have not broken up into individual flocks. Hens are not being bred where I'm at, and the gobblers are pretty frustrated.
My third observation is that we evidently had a terrible hatch last year. I found 4 jakes total... not good. I'm sure there are some jake wads around that I haven't seen yet, hoping there's a group of 15-20 roaming around.
And likewise, I've never seen this few adult hens. Even the large subflocks only have 15-20 females, a decade ago there would be 50-60 in the subflocks. This is probably the most ominous sign for the future.
Lastly, gobbling seemed to be significantly less than typical for opening weekend. Usually, birds hammer like crazy, but ignore calls as they follow nonreceptive hens around like puppy dogs. In years past, it was never a problem to get them to shock gobble during the day on opening weekend, but once they hit the ground, they shut up this past weekend. Usually, toms seem to gobble more than usual when the hens are not receptive (to try to bring in another hen that might be receptive) then gobble less when they are with receptive hens. I have no idea why they were talking less (and also less than usual on the roost).
