Springfield — Is this the spring turkey hunters finally push past the state record?
Optimism runs high due to the health and size of the state’s turkey
flock, favorable conditions in the fields and last year’s harvest of
15,941.
The state record harvest of 16,605 was set in 2006.
“I’m hoping for a pretty good season and possibly some improved
numbers,” Paul Brewer, turkey biologist for DNR, said. “We saw a pretty
good increase last year, so we’re hoping for the same.”
Hunters had taken 15,121 turkeys during the 2011 spring season.
This season, which opens April 8 in the south zone and April 15 in the north zone, is difficult to forecast, Brewer admitted.
“Talking to people around the state, there are reports from the field
of very early broods this year,” Brewer noted. “Our annual brood surveys
in June, July and August [of 2012] showed a slight decline in the
number of young turkeys per hen that was observed. The reports show 2.03
poults per hen, compared with 2.19 last year. The long-term average is
2.35. However, This decline conflicts with some reports we had from our
field biologists, particularly in the northwest and southern part of the
state.”
Brewer said the differences may be a factor of survey takers not being
able to see turkeys last summer, which featured taller-than-normal crops
due to early spring planting.
“Also, hot and dry weather may have kept hens and young turkeys closer
to water sources and in more shaded locations,” Brewer said. “Hot
weather also reduced the amount of time many of our observers were in
the outdoors to make observations.”
Weather will again play a major role in this spring’s harvest – not
because of the impact it will have on the turkeys, but because of the
impact it can have on hunters.
“When you look at a season harvest, you have to a account for the cold,
wet mornings that hunters decide aren’t worth sitting through,” Brewer
said. “We’ve all been there.”
He pointed to last year’s harvest bump as an example of how weather positively affected both turkeys and hunters.
“The mild winter that preceded the 2012 spring hunting season very
likely improved the survival of wild turkeys,” he said. “That, combined
with excellent weather during the hunting season, likely contributed to
the bigger harvest.”
As far as specific parts of the state, north zone hunters led the
harvest once again last spring, taking 8,935 birds, a slight increase
over the 8,652 harvested in 2011.
South zone hunters took 7,006 turkeys last spring, 537 more than in 2011.
Counties with the highest harvests in the north zone were Jo Daviess
with 638 gobblers, Pike 452, Fulton 404, Adams 366 and Macoupin 314.
The top south zone counties were Jefferson 486, Wayne 386, Pope 380, Randolph 332 and Marion 331.
Youth hunts open the season
Youth hunters and their mentors will again take first strike at the spring season.
Last year, youth-season hunters harvested a record 1,300 turkeys, a big
jump over the 748 taken in 2011 and the 737 taken in 2010.
“Weather last year during both youth hunt weekends was a big reason for
the record harvest in 2012,” Brewer said. “A wet spring in 2011 once
again contributed to below-average turkey reproduction in many areas,
but a good mast crop and a very mild winter were working in favor of
late-spring broods.”
In 2012, spring youth season turkey permits totaled 4,100.
State’s turkeys handled drought, heat
Many hunters have been concerned about how turkeys handled last summer’s extreme heat and drought.
The answer: they handled it just like we did.
“They can overheat,” said Kent Adams, an Effingham, Ill.-based wildlife biologist with the National Wild Turkey Federation.
Adams said during last year’s heat, wild turkeys sought out shaded
areas, especially around creeks and streams, where they could get a
drink and also expand their menu of invertebrates at water’s edge. He
added that dry spring weather in the nesting season generally correlates
to higher breeding success.
If drought managed to have an effect on wild turkeys, Adams said, it
would take several seasons of drought. In that scenario, a lack of food
could claim casualties on late-hatched poults, especially since
young-of-the-year wild turkeys rely heavily on insects, especially
earlier in their life cycle.
Written By: Ralph Loos
In conjunction with AON’s Truck-Buck deer-scoring event on Saturday,
April 20, Alabama DCNR folks will be on hand to score racks for its
Records of Alabama’s White-tailed Deer (RAWD) program. The RAWD program
is open to antlers from all free-ranging bucks legally taken or found
dead in Alabama, regardless of the year the deer was taken or found. The
minimum scores for the program are 140 typical (net) and 165
non-typical (net). If a deer has been officially scored for Boone &
Crockett, Pope & Young or Longhunter’s purposes, sportsmen can bring
the official score sheet with their mount to a RAWD scoring session.
