West Tenn turkey population?

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caveman

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I hunt in Hardeman county around the Bolivar area. Seems in the last 6 years our Turkey population has continually decrease. Well below what it was 5 years ago. During Bow Season for deer I had to scare them away. This year during Bow and Gun season (deer) I have counted maybe 10 total birds compared to 50 or so 5 years ago. we did not bag a turkey last year and very little gobbling.

Anyone else in this geographic area with a comment?
 
woodsman87":mce9n2p1 said:
Yep. Numbers been down in Lincoln, Giles, Lawrence, and wayne.

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those aren't west TN and they experienced a much more rapid decline


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Seems like all of the counties from central south Tennessee to the west are experiencing decline. All along the Alabama /Mississippi border.


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And according to the harvest reports, it went from being in the mid 600s of birds reported, to the mid 400s. Since around 2009. Which to me looks like a slow, but steady decline.


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I've been monitoring this for years and finally decided to do something about it on my farm.

Hardeman county harvest since 2005: 952, 627, 624, 673, 625, 658, 603, 544, 458, and 482. 4 years ago I started habitat improvement projects focused specifically on turkeys and thanks to several banner hatches (hallelujah) now have oodles of birds. At the beginning of the project I was really concerned about the health of the local flock but they have responded well to my effort. If you have the land to manage, a little work over the next several years might go a long way to helping the birds rebound.
 
OK Boll Weevil you got my attention. What specifically did you do to improve the habitat?
 
I've been preaching about the declining numbers of wild turkeys in southwest Tennessee for years now. It's not just a problem in southern Middle Tennessee. But what I can't understand is the population explosion of wild turkeys in central middle Tennessee over the last few years??
 
Me too skfooter. Many people may not remember me or my post, but I've been saying it on here and to other people for years. Just 15 miles to the north of me, in northern Giles county, all the way to and including Maury county, there is a longbeard behind every tree.

I've grown tired talking about it, wishing that things would change.

I have about come the conclusion, that we had a population boom, everybody got used to seeing turkeys every where in that time period, and now this is the new normal.

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caveman":c98aabgp said:
OK Boll Weevil you got my attention. What specifically did you do to improve the habitat?
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Here you go caveman. viewtopic.php?f=12&t=280701&p=3669113#p3669113

There has been quite a lot of discussion on here about this very concern so hopefully some of the info helpful. One thing I might add is that it doesn't necessarily take a whole lot of money but it does take effort and time the the flock to respond. Just a couple of decent hatches combined a little effort on our part...it worked for my place.
 
woodsman87":ac26arq4 said:
I have about come the conclusion, that we had a population boom, everybody got used to seeing turkeys every where in that time period, and now this is the new normal.

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This may be more prophetic then you realized. The population boom and peak followed by a decrease is a normal curve for restored populations but what some folks are also seeing is major flux of localized populations as well. And it appears all of this may be completely natural. There has been a multi year research project going in the entire southeast looking at turkey decline. Though there are still studies to take place, it appears that there are density dependent factors at play. In simplest terms, when turkey densities are really low they are very successful at reproducing, hence their poult to hen ratios are very high. Once densities are maximized reproduction decreases, hence the poult to hen ratios begin to decline, exacerbating population decline. What some areas where turkey numbers have dropped have seen recently, is their poult to hen ratios begin to rebound hence populations begin to build again.
 
But that still doesn't explain why we have no hens or gobblers to make the population rebound. I think it is getting better in southern Lawrence. Slowly.

It is in my opinion that something happened, what, who knows? I think the problem has almost resolved itself and twra was to late to the game to figure out the original problem.

I think the problems now are what ever is left over from the die off we had, nest raiders, and the fact they still have a turkey season in southern Lawrence County.

And BGG I'm not throwing off on you, or twra. I just think whatever happened wasn't brought to anyones attention in a timely manner
 
I kind of see what BGG is saying but I hear Rockhound and others too; the swiftness that some localized populations tanked was absolutely startling. And when there's nothing there to even produce a high poult to hen ratio...nuthin' from nuthin' yields nuthin.

Speaking of my own learning with regard to the slow and incremental rebound, I totally underestimated the importance of just 1 or 2 birds raising their brood to the jake/jenny stage. It took 4 years of work and Ma'Nature cooperating but I now appreciate how difficult it to just get a clutch or 2 hatched out; it's a really BIG deal. In the past I figured a flock of 6-8 hens could surely produce enough little turkeys to sustain the population but considering predation, nest robbers, poult mortality, hunting, I now know better.

This is also the reason I choose not to shoot hens; how do I know the hen I shot wasn't going to be the one that makes it and produces more turkeys? It's just too delicate a balance and I've seen firsthand what "turkeyless" looks like. Morning after beautiful spring morning with nary a peep. No tracks in the roads, no dusting sites, no feathers, no turkeys, and even as I type this I can recall standing there in the logging road after walking 3 miles wondering "What the heck happened?" They just weren't there anymore.
 
Boll Weevil":y41be781 said:
I kind of see what BGG is saying but I hear Rockhound and others too; the swiftness that some localized populations tanked was absolutely startling. And when there's nothing there to even produce a high poult to hen ratio...nuthin' from nuthin' yields nuthin.
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2 years for our localized population to be decimated, 2 years. I just absolutely cannot sit back and say "natural"

We had our years of 5 or 6 gobblers, and we had our years of 15 or 16 for a long time. And then all at once it went to 1 or 2 and then none for several years.

But I griped about it for a long time, now I'm doing something about it. We trapped a coon and a skunk last night. We're around 50 coons on the year and hopefully several more before the 28th of feb.

I'll probably do alot of yote trapping after that or trying anyway. After February I will have 8 more acres of ground opened up into field that was until Last year impenetrable thicket. That should help, wheat, clover, and such.

We still have alot of thicket in this area and we are planting 50 acres of pines, which should be great for nesting. But I think the new fields will be a key, they have opened up areas between use able hardwood and pasture that they used to wouldn't have crossed.
 
Rockhound":v3sqkuhs said:
But I griped about it for a long time, now I'm doing something about it.
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Sir, I am REALLY interested to hear how your place improves over the next little while as it sounds like you definitely have a sound plan for making a difference. That's where I was too...it was just time to roll up my sleeves and help the birds out as best I could. My goal was to create an absolute turkey factory; so far it's working and I genuinely hope you and others see the same success.

Looking back at all the sweat, sore muscles, time, money...the first morning you hear gobbles in a place you haven't for years...makes it all worth it.
 
Boll Weevil":1hi63lpt said:
Rockhound":1hi63lpt said:
But I griped about it for a long time, now I'm doing something about it.
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Sir, I am REALLY interested to hear how your place improves over the next little while as it sounds like you definitely have a sound plan for making a difference. That's where I was too...it was just time to roll up my sleeves and help the birds out as best I could. My goal was to create an absolute turkey factory; so far it's working and I genuinely hope you and others see the same success.

Looking back at all the sweat, sore muscles, time, money...the first morning you hear gobbles in a place you haven't for years...makes it all worth it.
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In all honesty BW I'm following I'm your footsteps of what you have posted in the past.
 
Spurhunter":50as98xs said:
kentuckylakebuck":50as98xs said:
if all of this is true then why do we still have a 4 gobbler limit in west tn?
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Better yet, why do we have hen hunts in the fall???
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In response to both...just because the State says we can doesn't neccessarily mean we should.
 

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