Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk ALTurkey Talk -- Beards and Spurs The Turkey Numbers '26

Makes one wonder the absence of DDT use and the rebounding of raptors at an all time high

Here ya go CNC, another rabbit hole

See the green strip that's left in Alabama....That matches right up to our red area on the current harvest map......

Break out the footholds......

I figured you would like that..

The reason that strip of “grassland” is so down is because when a lot of the avian predators died off then the rodent food sources were completely left to the other predators and you’ve had a boom of things that effect hen survival and nesting success in those grasslands like coyotes, bobcats, and foxes…….That would be my guess

We produce too much grass in our “grasslands”……Its too dense and it grows unimpeded without any grazing….. so height, tonnage, and density are ALL out of balance……That excessive amount of grass is producing an excessive amount of rodents which produces an excessive amount of predators…….and this ^^^^^ is what happens……Not to mention the structural problems this causes with hens nesting around the edges…….

I’m all for supporting the burners but those maps show the reality of our current efforts……In order to see improvements then there will have to be some tweaks made to the process……Reduce that grass and break out the footholds……Study on ways to help with avian predation.....such as maybe promoting birds that harass raptors


Eastern Kingbirds
Prefer open spaces with elevated perches near water, such as lake edges, wetlands, Beaver ponds, orchards, and open woodlands. They prefer areas with abundant insects for food and dense, thorny trees (like apple, elm, or willow) for nesting

Mockingbirds
They are known to be year-round residents that prefer consistent, open terrain with plenty of fruiting bushes for winter food They need shrubby thickets for protection and nesting (typically 3–10 feet high), and short-grass areas or open soil for foraging.

Blue jays
Their presence is strongly tied to areas with acorn-producing trees and available bird feeders.

Red Winged Blackbird
Thrive in open, wet environments, particularly cattail marshes, sloughs, and swamps across North America.

No it doesn't. Pickens, Greene, Hale, Sumter, Marengo, Wilcox, Dallas, Lowndes, Montgomery are the "green strip" and always have been. Only 2 of those are down on your map. Even I can't help feeding the troll

Jackson Co just topped 800 birds game checked this morning............

We surpassed last year's total this morning......A little over a 1000 more to go to set a new 7 year high statewide

I'd hate to see the "bad" years on the properties I'm hunting if we are breaking records this year!

If you want a “grass” map that’s actually showing what’s occurring then here it is…….at least as far as the way its playing out over here on my end of the red strip that’s so down this year………If you look at Google Earth map you can actually see the quail plantation land standing out……Its all of that orangish brown stuff you see….



Now if we zoom out……that main plantation belt of grass covers an area roughly something like below……I probably need to stretch that southwest corner out a little more and the eastern side probably runs farther south down through Barbour but its close enough to explain the concept.



The reality of what’s occurring is that all of that grass is producing a coyote density that is having impacts far outside of just the “grassland”…..This is the type of scale we’re actually dealing with……I think the reason why the counties like Elmore, Lee, and Pike are actually doing even worse right now is because the habitat there is getting pummeled by the extra predation pressure that's getting exported out to them from the coyote boom that likely occurred in the grassland ….The only way I can see you could do anything about this situation is either try and reduce the excess grass with the cattle idea or “break out the footholds”……

No you are wrong and you have NO data to support your argument like normal

Once you surpass optimal plant height and density for turkeys…..every little bit that you get thicker and taller swings the pendulum toward benefiting predators more and turkeys less…….That is the basis for the issue……If you get enough acreage that’s way over that thick and tall threshold then you’ll eventually reach a point where predator density is so high on a landscape scale that turkey populations are flirting with sustainability…..This is why they likely found what they did at the Jones Center and the same thing that's occurring around the plantation belt in Alabama

What probably makes it even worse in the yellow area I circled is the fact that its slam full of hogs…….hogs which they say eat a lot of snakes……..Which means that if you have a die off of avian predators then a big portion of the excess rodent prey is just about exclusively going to coyotes, bobcats, and foxes……………..Not to mention that we had some really wet summers back around 2021 which just means that many more rodents produced and that much thicker understory…….That either equals a coyote reproduction boom in the grassland or it equals more transients being drawn to the area…… or maybe both…….What happens to those extra yotes??.....The excess eventually gets pushed outward

Just to add on a side note…..I suspect that barred owls must not be suffering as much from the avian flu as other species and have also prospered from the excess prey abundance and possibly the absence of great horned owls…….They seem to be booming right now……There’s quite a few of them behind my house here in Auburn each night and they’re all over the land I’ve been hunting. I’m not seeing many hawks at all right now though like I was seeing a few years ago

This is a worthy event to add to the timeline below......2021 was the second wettest June-Aug in Alabama since records began being kept in 1895......Summer rains are what produces summer grass.......the more grass the more rodents.......This also happens to be the same winter when the avian flu outbreak began

https://www.wsfa.com/2021/09/09/alabama-mississippi-had-top-2-wettest-summer-ever/

To lazy to go back and look up what the colors mean. What the green read and yellow and hatched and unhatched mean on the years above?

Of course 2026 is yet to be finalized but its gonna end something close to what it is on the timeline above......Most of the green will end up being striped.....Some of the red may be.....A few counties are only in the high 60's and low 70's right now with fourteen days to go

Here is what the map should end up looking like…..It may vary slightly depending on if a few of those red counties are able to finish up strong enough to take the stripes away…..Since some counties are so above average this season I added one more delineation to the map of a gold star to represent counties that are 130% or more of average……

To give it some perspective……. over the previous 6 years of data there has been 11 times total when a county went over 130% of average for a season with the highest being 143% over the entire 6 year time period........The way things sit right now we should finish this season with at least 24 counties over 130%.....possibly more…… with Lawrence likely to top 200% ………with several more over 150%

2026

Reckon what's up with Fayette Co??? .............