TPW thinking of closing Turkey season

In parts of East Tx. for 2015. In the Dallas paper today.

Here is Houston story.



Spring turkey hunting season in doubt in many counties

By Shannon Tompkins | February 7, 2015 | Updated: February 7, 2015 8:14pm
http://www.chron.com/sports/outdoors/art...any-6068987.php

Hate to see season closed. They have sure tried hard with transplants over the years.

Looking at the country in East Texas, one would think the birds would do well. From the stockings that doesn't seem to be the case, don't know if it is poaching or something else. I do know turkey populations can sure fluctuate a lot even in good range.

Some mold that develops on corn can kill turkeys, one large place in Mississippi that illegally was pouring out piles of corn for deer, pretty much killed off their turkey population. Corn from feeders that scatters out the corn doesn't seem to cause the same issue.

Sure wish those birds could take off and do well though. Until then and after that as well, I will just continue hunting the Eastern Turkeys in Mississippi.

I have a place out near Athens and over the years we have seen some Turkey, but they don't seem to last long. Talking to the locals and the biologist, the reasons they usually give are fire ants and predators. Sure seems like they would do well, but the push for the introduction of the turkey in our area has pretty much died off due to failed efforts.

Its' aflatoxin and it slowly kill them by destroying their liver when PPB get high. Feeders corn can contribute to the aflatoxin problem when there is poor ventilation, heat exposure, and you condensation from Humidity and corn decomposing found in barrel feeders.









Here is another article on The season.

I haven't seen a turkey in a couple of years on my place. Quail are more common.

Man, sorry to hear that!!

Man, sorry to hear that!!

Some counties probably need to be closed until the super stocking efforts take hold. Only issue I foresee is the few remaining public spots that do have a turkey season will end over crowded with hunters come season...

I do not know of any being killed or any one hunting or poaching, or running over ect a turkey in Hopkins, Franklin, Titus, Red River, Morris, Bowie, or Cass County. Ive seen one about 10 years ago in Cass County. A hen in the road on my lease before daylight. She trotted in front of me for probably 30 yds before exiting in to the woods.

Red River is supposed to be one of the best counties in northeast TX. I hear of quite a few birds coming out of that county each year..

I had a good population of Easterns on mine and the neighboring place in Red River county several years ago. Predation and logging have reduced the numbers some, but from what I seen in June, we had a good hatch. That's 2 year in a row for decent hatches. Hope to see a few more 2 year olds running around this year. I was down that way last weekend, but did not hear any gobbling, but its still early.


Gman

Bobcats love turkeys and there are plenty of bobcats in east TX.. I am sure coyotes get them too but coyotes do not have the turkey killing skills of a bobcat. We had a bobcat in Gillespie county that used our bowhunting platform as a launch pad.

All true but we must have something that places like Mississippi doesn't have to keep Easterns from being successful in NE Texas.

I think Jason Hardin is on to something when he says that in past releases using the block stocking method too few birds were used which is why super stocking now seems to be the way to go. In a block stocking where 2 or 3 gobblers and about 10 or 12 hens were released if a predator or poacher killed 1 or 2 of the toms that would hinder the breeding efforts. Sure it took on in a few areas but in most areas just left diminishing populations of birds. Since the practice runs of the super stockings were implemented on a few test sites in 2007/08 the results have showed stable to good and growing populations.

Every other southern state has it's share of predators as well and these released turkeys has been surviving them even before they were brought here and released. If we can release enough turkeys in an area the odds for better survival increase. I talked to Jason while he spoke at a youth event we held at Gus Engling last year and he said that when they first started restocking rios in parts of Texas that they previously weren't, they always stocked larger numbers of birds. Now they are in most areas west of I-35 and quite a few areas east of I-35 as well.

Many other states that currently have large eastern populations have also released larger numbers of birds in the past and according to Jason. I think if we continue with the super stocking method and we get more land owners who would like to see more turkeys involved we will start to see an upward trend in the next 5-10 years...and this might require some season closures in some counties.

A lot of our national forest are closed canopy with thick under story which creates a more predation prone environment and hardly any brood habitat. If you some of you landowners think you have some pretty good habitat that's well managed and you either own 10,000 continuous acres or have neighbors you can connect with and can start a co-op consisting of at least 10,000, you can have the biologist come out and let them know you're interested in having a super stocking done.

I am not a turkey hunter but where I deer hunt I have seen several small buches over the last 3-4 years but did not see any at all this deer season. I have a question, what is the grass/weed that turkeys are so crazy over? I have heard that is has a small nut like seed that grows in the ground that makes the turkeys love it. I would plant some if I could remember the name of the grass. Any ideas, anyone. Thanks Daniel

Chuffa

A lot of property in general is like that in ETX due to timber management practices. Even where they've been released and birds are stacked up like cord wood, they aren't moving into the pretty pristine river bottoms adjacent to those properties. They're having to trap from there and release across the river because the birds just aren't expanding. Study was done on the place my wife's family has tied up in a lease and they were putting traps around nests and caught the heck out of wood rats.

TJack, Thanks for the information. Daniel

In a lot of areas where the super stockings they have been moving. According to Jason birds are starting to be seen in places miles away from the original 2007/08 super stocking site. I've mentioned this before but we've had birds gobbling on our neighbors place just outside of Frankston which is over 20 miles north of the original site. I may be slowly progressing but it's happening. Usually you'll start seeing young males looking for new territory first.

No problem..

These newly released aren't moving much at all, they're still roosting right around the release site. They'll have to do something when the forest service does another controlled burn.

Just spent last weekend in the north end of Davy Crockett NF, saw two groups of toms and hens. Lots of tracks/scratchings too, all near the Neches River.

Details



From here you can give them your input...
http://tpwd.texas.gov/business/feedback/public_comment/proposals/201503_statewide_hunting.phtml

You are welcome to come and get 1 or all of our turkeys.

Was just talked to Jason at a Wildlife Management Conference and mentioned the Montgomery county release site and he said the reason those birds aren't moving is because the area they're living limits they're ability to travel any great distance. That like the other 3 releases in 2007/08 were experimental and the travel aspect wasn't looked at at the time for that particular co-op site.

The birds from the first experimental site in Anderson county are doing quite well and have expanded quite a bit. From reports they have traveled pretty good distances north and south of the original release sites, and have maintained a healthy population within the site range. They trapped birds to attach radio collars on yesterday and managed to trap around 15 birds ...5 hens and 10 toms. I was told that they made some calls there along the Neches river and the whole river bottom lit up with gobbles. Makes me excited just hearing about it...

According to Jason the eastern populations in certain areas along the Neches are nearly as thick as established flocks of rios in rio grande country. They are making their way up and down that river from that initial Super stocking. This method seems to be showing very positive results thus far...especially in certain areas of Anderson county.

If this is in response to what I was talking about previously then it's not the release I'm talking about. I'm talking about Nac Co birds turned out in SA Co. They have a lot of room to expand with where they got dropped off. Lots of NF, lots of COE, large private 5000ac tract in the middle of all that.

Okay...I was telling what you were saying about one of the release sites and I thought you were talking about Montgomery county, but that's what he said about one of the southeast site...I assume it was Montgomery though. Not sure what's going on in Nac county, but most of the sites are supposed to be doing pretty good...especially Anderson county. He said he got pretty excited when the river bottom blew up with gobbles in an area they were trapping in a few days ago. Plus the number of mature long beards they had coming into bait stations...

I should've been more specific on location with a Kingwood location showing. Nac Co population is fine in the SE corner, that's an old established group, they're just not expanding East or North across a highway.

Oh ok...gotcha! Perhaps those are the boundaries he was referring to, but I know that he said one of those flocks were thriving but just limited in they're ability to travel. One of the requirement for a release is 10,000 acres of continuous habitat that's not broken or divided by a major structure such as a highway, so I assume that would be a major barrier for traveling turkeys since they tend to shy away from too much activity.

Beard restriction BR (over 13") will probably need to be inforced

To the East is a FM road paralleling a river and it's rare that you see them cross the FM rd. To the North is hwy 21 which is just 2 lane through that stretch. The lease they were released on a long time ago was 13K acres and there's just a whole lot of nothing out there even on the adjacent properties. I'm managing a place that borders that lease and caught 2 birds walking the main road going back to the lease they came from once, but oddly enough there are more quail on that place on the SMZs than turkey visitors. Where some of those birds were caught and relocated to gives them a ton of room to spread out with Sam Rayburn as boundary. A bunch of them are roosting on an old "pay to launch" building/bait shop that's been shut down for years. Those have a problem because they're very visible being out on the FM ROW like that.

A buddy that I got on the Nac Co lease killed a dbl bearded with 19" of beard so it's doable...