OUTDOORS

SLIP IN TURKEY HARVEST NUMBERS FOLLOWS TREND

Spring weather is one of many factors involved

Published: Sunday, May 30, 2004

SPORTS 13E

By Dave Golowenski

FOR THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Considering that 50 years ago wild turkeys didn't exist in Ohio, the month-long spring season that ended last Sunday needn't be construed as a hunting disaster.

"I was pretty happy with what the numbers turned out to be,'' said wildlife biologist Dave Swanson, the turkey specialist who heads the Ohio Division of Wildlife's Waterloo research station in Athens County. "What were the numbers, about 20 percent down from last year?''

Just about. Preliminary totals for the four-week harvest were 16,118, a decline of about 19.5 percent from 2003, when 20,031 bearded turkeys were tagged. Add in the 1,519 birds dispatched during the special two-day youth hunt in April, which was more than triple the 421 tagged by youngsters in 2003, and the total take slipped to 17,637 this year, a decline of about 14 percent from the 20,452 taken by young and old a year ago.

Still, from a peak harvest of 26,217 gobblers during a three-week season in 2001, the trend has been down -- 15 percent in 2002 and another 10 percent a year ago. A few months ago, Swanson had forecast a 2004 harvest of between 20,000 and 25,000 turkeys from a flock he estimated to be about 200,000 statewide: in other words, no harvest decline at all and maybe even an increase.

That forecast proved optimistic.

"A lot of it had to do with how quickly it greened up,'' he said.

Summer like weather arrived shortly after the April 26 opening day. Practically overnight, budding trees and bushes transformed into lush foliage that provided turkey cover and made rousting beards harder than normal in much of the state.

However, more to blame than the spring of 2004, Swanson said, were the springs of 2001, 2002 and 2003. Chilly rains wreaked ruin on many a newly hatched poult in each of those seasons, and serious hunters who went without filling a tag this year simply was victimized by nature's past indifference to life and death in the wild.

Not that success stories didn't occur.

"My clients killed eight birds in 12 attempts,'' said Kevin Corry, a Dublin resident who operates Wackum and Stackum Guide Service.” It wasn't the worst year I've ever had. But the last two weeks, I couldn't buy a gobble. Everything shut down.''

The numbers in Guernsey County, where Corry takes his clients, were typical. A total of 497 birds was tagged, and that represents a decline of 135, or about 21 percent, from the 632 taken in 2003. Ashtabula County, which led the state for the umpteenth straight year, surrendered 648 gobblers, a precipitous fall of 368, or about 36 percent, from the 1,016 taken in 2003.

A single turkey stronghold topped the 2003 totals -- Knox County's harvest climbed to 445 this year from 388 a year ago. All other top counties slipped: Coshocton (540 from 580), Harrison (529 from 595), Jefferson (441 from 509), Belmont (439 from 504), Columbiana (427 from 576), Trumbull (411 from 544) and Monroe (407 from 441).

The take in the long-standing turkey havens of Athens and Vinton counties fell by a third, Athens to 404 from 603 and Vinton to 214 from 328. Activity at the check station at Waterloo had Swanson wondering at one point whether the statewide harvest might not turn out lower than it did.

"We had 69 birds total here,'' he said. "We usually do that in the first couple of days.''

A number of theories, each with some merit but ultimately only a puzzle piece, have been making the rounds about what has gone awry from the time the state's turkey population was a robust 260,000 only a few years ago. As trapping has declined in the state, nest raiders such as raccoons, opossums and skunks have proliferated. Also looked upon as suspects are coyotes and foxes, which occasionally catch and eat hens and juveniles.

Swanson doesn't see predators, including humans, as the crux of the problem.

"Everybody wants something to blame,'' he said.”That way they can look for a quick fix.''

Ohio turkeys average nest clutches of about a dozen eggs, he said, but the typical brood family is only three to four birds. About half the eggs or young birds are lost to predation in the natural scheme. What determines a successful hatch is the degree to which weather takes its toll on the half-dozen escapees from predation.

Whether the flock size will increase, decrease or hold steady depends on the survival of a bird or two per nest. In 1999, a combination of ideal spring weather and abundant food in the form of a cicada hatch led to optimum survival and an explosion of turkeys.

The last few years have been far from turkey friendly. Further, the Ohio bird population in much of its prime range has reached the holding capacity of the land. That means the boom of a few years ago was more of an aberration; a return to something like the mean currently is occurring. Thus, rather than steady growth in bird numbers that marked the first decades after the reintroduction of the wild turkey, observers should expect peaks and valleys in numbers.

An increase in numbers is only one warm, dry spring away. Himself a turkey hunter, Swanson hopes this can be that spring.

outdoors@dispatch.com