Where have they been all fall?

[BilletHead]

23 minutes ago, tjm said:

I just thought of an anecdote having to do with poultry and wild turkeys,   back in the mid-late '60s there were lots of thousands of domestic turkeys being grown out side on "ranges", ~3 acre patches wire fenced ~8' as i remember, this was about the same period that we first started seeing wild turkeys show up locally and near one of those range operations some of the wild turkeys in a couple of flocks were white and the next year there several pied turkeys in those flocks. that particular range operation dissolved after about two years due to divorce and the whole outside ranging idea was scrapped for inside ranging not long after that; but the wild turkeys in that location were still often pied ~40 years later, with some being mostly white. I've never known for sure if the white was from the domestic stock or if it and the pied factor are natural in the wild stock. I'll be watching as that area repopulates to see if the pied strain comes back too. 

                       We did see a throwback about twelve years ago and then again about five years back.  Before we lived here, we had a pet, Tom Turkey. The guy I bought it from called it a Spanish cross. I have no idea about its linage, but Pat seen it courting a wild hen in our yard. It bred her. Then we moved and the turkey came with us. It had a pen but called multiple hens to the fence so I would say the crosses are happening once and awhile. 

[Quillback]

11 hours ago, tjm said:

Quillback, since I'm just a few miles from you, I can provide a little info on why you don't see more here. Now, I don't recall the years, but, 10-15 years ago we had cold wet rains during the brood time, not just once but several years in a row, resulting in zero recruitment. I went from having two flocks using my land (every year and year 'round, by the way) and having two or three hens nest every year to having none, and in the years since, the guys that hunt hard and know where every roost is told me that for a number of years they hadn't seen or heard a single bird in the whole area. Lost the usual two or three coveys  of bobwhites at the same time and I've not heard a quail since. As best I recall this affected most of Benton and McDonald counties.  MDC said they would come back eventually and the turkeys are, the past three years I've seen turkeys in the Big Sugar corridor from Pea Ridge  to near Pineville and the numbers are increasing with each year.  In another 20 years they will back in Bella Vista and Caverna. They just need to cross a couple of ridges.

The NWTF says "In general, the average life expectancy for hens is three years and four years for toms. Everyone likes to blame predators as the chief factor when discussing a wild turkey’s life expectancy, but, while predation is no doubt a factor,  ..."  So in theory  three consecutive bad years could wipe out the hen population. it did here, but it may have been a couple marginal years followed by three or four failing years.

I have never seen or heard a turkey in Bella Vista in the 16 years I have lived here.  

[netboy]

We have seen a few in the yard under our deer feeder.  

[BilletHead]

3 hours ago, Quillback said:

I have never seen or heard a turkey in Bella Vista in the 16 years I have lived here.  

            Well, you should as I have kinfolk down there!