Turkey decline

[G-man]

https://www.mossyoak.com/our-obsession/blogs/turkey/two-problems-resulting-in-a-decline-in-turkey-populations?fbclid=IwAR3-k-t2THHjw3ajQ0ypW7w16Af0Ze3FOKSNGzc0Sz3mHHoe1MVIDZnVXjU

[mowin]

Not in my area.  This video is only 1/2 mile from one of the farms I hunt.  

Over 100 birds in this video from the other day.  There were more on the other side of the road. 

[Bucksnbows]

32 minutes ago, blackbeltbill said:

   Northern  New Jersey where,I also hunt Spring Gobblers has a Low Turkey Population  compared to before 2015,I would say. All across  Sussex,Passaic, and Bergen Counties. I am hoping for a Turnaround this year as far as Turkey Numbers go. I start down there on April 25th. We will see.

   My area of New York has a Fair to Strong Turkey Population.  But nothing like the years from 1995 to roughly again around 2015.  I would always take my 4 Yearly Turkeys in most of those years and more from Jersey and the 20 years,I Turkey Hunted Pennsylvania. 

    So,I see 2015 as the start of the Turkey Population Decline.

  Now 2015 as some here might remember was also the year that the DEC in Zones 3 +4 Slashed the Fall Turkey Turkey in 3 ways. 1- Cut the Bag limit from 2 Fall Turkeys to 1 Turkey. 2- Slashed the Length of the Fall Turkey Season from 6 weeks to 2 weeks. 3-Moved the Opening day of Fall Turkey from October 1st to this year October 15th.

   So 8 full years has gone by and,I don't see much of a change in the Turkey Population.  And no follow up on this from the DEC.

    Like the Deer- Turkeys in my area are doing better where no Hunting is allowed.

    I personally  think ,I will have more opportunities  on Public this year. It has been a mild Winter in Southren,NY.  I think more Turkeys will survive this Winter. 

We hunt not too far away in northern NJ. We had a spring 3 years ago where it dropped to 26 degrees on May 14th and we get 2”-3” of icy snow. I didn’t see a poult that I can recall that entire spring or summer. We have also had three consecutive poor to no acorn crops. This warm, low snow winter is helping get as many adults to breeding stage as possible, but it’s going to take a few good years of dry springs to get big numbers of birds again. 

[mowin]

58 minutes ago, Bucksnbows said:

We hunt not too far away in northern NJ. We had a spring 3 years ago where it dropped to 26 degrees on May 14th and we get 2”-3” of icy snow. I didn’t see a poult that I can recall that entire spring or summer. We have also had three consecutive poor to no acorn crops. This warm, low snow winter is helping get as many adults to breeding stage as possible, but it’s going to take a few good years of dry springs to get big numbers of birds again. 

It's amazing how as few as 50 miles can affect the population.  

Our coyote population is out of control, lots of fishers, but we've got a fantastic turkey population with little agg. 

[Buckmaster7600]

I’m not convinced we didn’t have too many turkeys not all that long ago. Hunting is a lot more fun now that there’s not 2 gobblers behind every tree.

[Gobbler Chaser]

Low to No has been the norm here in lower Ulster for going on 6yrs now, with the last two seasons being No. Not expecting much this upcoming seasons as I base my numbers on what I've seen during the previous deer season, and that was the same 4 birds all thru bow and rifle. I heard rumors they've all moved to Long Island 

[Wolc123]

There’s  not much of a decline on the nw corner of wmu 9F.  I just saw what might be the largest number of wild turkeys that I ever have, in one field, on my drive home from work this afternoon.  There was definitely more than 40 out there, including several with long beards: