Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk ALTurkey Talk -- Beards and Spurs Turkey Population

Just curious. Has anyone noticed a drop in turkey sightings this year? I have been blessed with having a robust turkey population on my property. Seeing groups of 15-20 gobblers in groups in the past in the fall. We are hell on the predators on my place too. I am hearing from a few of the guys that hunt my place that they are not getting a lot of pictures of gobblers in the fields this year. I know they maybe more in the woods but I have heard of some Pox type viruses that have been taking a toll on the birds. Has anyone else noticed a drop this year?

No sir. Our population has been increasing significantly the last 6-7 years. I will say the bull gnats are bad early this year and our birds are staying in the woods

Ours are down significantly across 2400 ac in the Perry/hale/bibb corner. Not sure why yet. Do have some dogs running in daytime on 1/4 of it, though.

Cameras don’t tell the whole story. I feel like with the turkeys on my properties, they are all moving around trying to figure out where they are going to be. Not like years ago when they roosted nearly in the same tree night after night

Cameras definitely lie. I’ve had one gobbler pic in a month.. Heard 3-4 on my little place Wednesday. No explanation of why they aren’t on camera other than maybe they are staying in the timber.

Big bore I know we hunt some properties in the same general area of Alabama and for us it’s the same. I been hunting the same property for 25 years and have never seen numbers this low. I really have no explanation for it either. I seen years with good hatches and year not good but haven’t seen a drop like this. I noticed last year and is worse this year.

On our place, when the bull gnats come out, getting pics of turkeys is over. And the gnats are out early this year and are ferocious. The turkeys avoid openings and stay in the woods.

They ate my eyes out Wednesday Stony. Early this year.

Fewer birds every year in places I hunt in Jackson County. I rode around a couple of hours other day and couldn’t see a gobbler.

We have a pile of birds!! 2 weeks ago I heard 20-25 different birds burning it up. I bet I’ve seen at least that many jakes since Wednesday.

Increase

Im hearing hunters mention both sides of this issue around here.

Im seeing more in their traditional areas than just a few years ago. Seeing a lot more in their new areas. Some traditional areas still don’t have any/many but overall trending back upwards.

I think its about hen survival and those growth year cycles Dr. Lashley and Dr. Gulsby talked about…….The lower the survival falls in an area the longer between cycles. If you’ve fallen to 1 in 10 years then it makes sense that you would watch a decline occur for a decade before seeing a good year where numbers bounce back some…….

We have 1800 ac. I have cameras in many places. Never seen so few turkeys as this year, It is terrible.

If an area goes long enough between growth years then I would imagine you eventually fall below a predator pit type threshold……At some point if it becomes 1 year in 12 or 15 then you’re going to decline for so long that the population cant bounce back to the previous levels even from a good year…….

I normally keep up to 22 hens during deer season and several jakes, 4-5 gobblers. This year I’ve had a few hens on camera and group of 4 gobs. I was happy they weren’t eating my corn but we aren’t seeing much sign now.

Turkey hunters aren’t going to tell you there are birds on your place, esp if there are other folks hunting it🤷🏿

Our population in Macon County (at least our area) has fallen every year for the past 5.

There’s a lot of truth in that but from my perspective. I don’t give a hoots like I used to. Burnout, lack of birds in places I hunted or shear numbers of hunters hitting the woods. I’ve pretty much retired. lol. Don’t kill a bird last year and for the first time my wife didn’t get bitched out. 😂 i pretty much killed limits every year since 94 until recent years. I just don’t get tore up.

I have no incentive to lie and I cover way more ground almost daily than anyone here except a few maybe. I talked to a lot guys that hunt and many are flat out killers. They ain’t gonna lie to me about it cause they’re seeing the same thing I’m seeing.

Like I said. Past few years appear to have been some good hatches. Last year I was worried but it appears we had a late hatch that produced good numbers

This doesn’t mean there are properties not seeing an overall downswing but enough are that there plenty of talk

Your mileage may very