Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 4, 1993 TAG: 9307040092
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The official kill was 8,331, a decline of 7 percent from the record 8,940 of the previous year.
That's nothing for hunters to be concerned about. It is a mere pothole in Virginia's marvelous road to turkey management success. The kill has been increasing at an annual average rate of 8 percent, and there is a good chance it will return to that pace next spring.
"I don't think the decline is a direct reflection on the turkey population," said Gary Norman, the upland game bird research biologist for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. "We all think this is more of an impact of weather and food conditions. We aren't concerned about it."
This year's smaller kill likely will result in a larger carry-over of toms into the 1994 spring season, Norman predicted. That's because the 1993 kill wasn't down because of a scarcity of turkeys. The gobblers simply were keeping quiet, especially during the early part of the season. Any hunter will tell you that it is difficult to deal with a mute gobbler.
Norman has some theories on why turkeys acted the way they did:
Last year's mast crop was poor, and that meant turkeys went into the spring breeding season in poorer shape than normal. "I think there is a lot of support for the theory that if gobblers don't have real good food conditions, they probably are going to have lower body weights and may not gobble as much," Norman said.
The blizzard of March compounded the impact of the low food supply. "If turkeys are in lean condition and you put a blizzard on them for a week or two, they are going to be really stressed," Norman said. Some turkeys perished during the blizzard, but Norman doesn't believe there was widespread mortality.
The hens nested later than usual. "The peak of incubation this year was generally about two to three weeks behind what we had seen in the previous three years," Norman said. Studies conducted by Norman during the 1989 through 1992 seasons revealed that half the hens had started to nest by the first week in May. This time, that didn't occur until about the third week of May.
The late nesting meant hunters had to compete with hens for the attention of toms. It can be tough enough to call in a lone, lovesick gobbler. When that gobbler is surrounded by hens . . . well, it adds problems for any caller not hatched from an egg.
Spring was slow greening up, a fact that seemed to set the biological clock of the hens on a slower pace. "A lot of the grasses and herbaceous things didn't pop out until late," Norman said. "The hens may have delayed their nesting until they got a shot of energy that they needed [from the greening of nature]."
Hunters are creatures of the calendar. When the spring turkey season opened April 17, they were ready to go. After a few days of dealing with toms who paid scant attention to their virtuoso yelps, cackles, clucks, purrs and gobbles, it became easier to sleep late than to be in the woods at 5 a.m.
"I just didn't see anybody out there during the last season," Norman said.
By then, the toms had started talking. The day before the season ended, Norman encountered one particularly vocal bird.
"He must have gobbled 200 to 250 times. He wouldn't shut up. I didn't kill it. I finally killed a bird later in the day," Norman said. "It may have been that a lot of gobblers finally were missing hens and decided to crank it up."
Hunters in the east coped with the late blooming season better than those west of the Blue Ridge. The eastern kill was down 5 percent, while the western kill was off twice that amount.
The top 10 counties were Franklin, 210; Bedford, 200; Prince George, 166; Scott, 165; Westmoreland, 164; Sussex, 157; Halifax, 154; Pittsylvania, 146; South Hampton, 146; and Albemarle, 144.
by CNB