NY numbers

[troutfisher13111]

I live in Fulton jperch, we are neighbors

[MACHINIST]

Jperch I am a it south of you in Fulton,while I do think the population s down from recent years I dont think its 50%.I had more luck in woods than I ever have this last year,so did the majority of the people I hunt with.Great to see another local!!

[CrustyRusty]

I hunt Putnam, Dutchess Fulton and Madison counties in NY.  Where I hunt in putnam and dutchess I used to see large flocks of birds while deer hunting, almost to the point they were an annoyance lol.  I can't remember the last time I even saw a bird in the fall in at least six or seven years.  I don't even want to bother to turkey hunt Putnam and dutchess now, it's practically a waste of time.

It's sad, I used to hear birds all spring behind my house, and always got at least one there also every year and my friends too, but now I see nor hear anything.  Fulton seems relatively stable and consistent from years past and Madison is still good, but I definitely think many things are going wrong in NY, (besides our governor) and populations have crashed.  Predation, disease, loss of habitat, fall hunting and poaching are catching up to the turkey.  I just hope DEC can at least make an impact on the things they can control, liked fall hunting and the taking of hens. I know myself that in the fall, I am usually bow hunting anyway, and most of my friends too, and that would be an easy first step.

[oldturk]

hi from western ny about 60 mi.southeast from buffalo.i also have'nt seen the usual amount of flocks in fields,i have had a great year,i tagged out early,both birds.i had a 10 3/4 in. beard other one 9 in.

[turkeyfeathers]

Oldturk, which part of NY ? 9H here, Eagle/Bliss area

[nyhunter]

I have lived in NY for all my life and hunted turkeys in NY since 1986. The turkey population is absolutely way down in the Allegany and Steuben county areas .  The Reason for this i don't know. As for The fisher sighting they have been in the Alfred are since the mid 90's they were released by the DEC in the state land in Allegany  County. 

Ok guys where ya'll live ?

Allegany County, Almond

[jrinny]

I am in Western New York in the Arcade/Java area of 9H. We are seeing a decline in numbers in this area as well. When the birds were increasing in numbers...so were the amount of new turkey hunters in this area. The numbers of birds are decreasing at a faster rate than hunters dropping out of the sport. I had a decent year with my son taking his first longbeard during the youth hunt and I tagged one towards the end of the season but I also had 3 days out of the 9 days I hunted...that I never heard a gobble. Five or ten years ago....I would of never guessed things were headed to where we are now.

[njdevilsb]

I hunt in Rodman.

[MACHINIST]

I hunt Worth just south of you for deer a few times a year

[troutfisher13111]

Well call me foolish, but I find the DEC's report a little promising. At least they aren't sitting around pretending that there isn't a problem. We have brought the numbers up in the past and can do it again.

[wvboy]

Talk to any local in rural NY and they will drive you around for miles pointing into empty fields echoing the same message: "That field used to always have a bunch of birds using it and I haven't seen any there for several years."

You used to go to the better areas in NY (Oswego, etc) and hear 10-15 birds on a good morning.  Now, if you hear 4-5, that's a stellar AM.

The turkey hunting skill of the locals isn't germane to the conversation.  What is valuable is their insight and most local farmers and hunters will tell you.... The birds ain't just there like they once were.

And btw, I'm pretty sure NY is down 30-40% from 5 years ago. Anyone disputing the the trouble the NY flock is in is in denial.

Welcome to what WV went through in the early 2000s .. back in the 90s it was nothing to hear 10 to 15 a morning.. now if you hear 2 or 3 you are doing good..  I think it is an entire East Coast problem and eventually all the states will see similar..  the NWTF did a great job of bringing birds back but the population is not maintaining what it was at it's peak in the 90s .. I'm not sure where the blame lies though.  Right now the Midwest seems to have escaped this issue for some reason though.. TN, KY, MO, IA etc all have great gobbling and population so either they are doing something right management wise or there is some other culprit at work on the east coast, because they have just an many predators as we do.

[mikejd]

Talk to any local in rural NY and they will drive you around for miles pointing into empty fields echoing the same message: "That field used to always have a bunch of birds using it and I haven't seen any there for several years."

You used to go to the better areas in NY (Oswego, etc) and hear 10-15 birds on a good morning.  Now, if you hear 4-5, that's a stellar AM.

The turkey hunting skill of the locals isn't germane to the conversation.  What is valuable is their insight and most local farmers and hunters will tell you.... The birds ain't just there like they once were.

And btw, I'm pretty sure NY is down 30-40% from 5 years ago. Anyone disputing the the trouble the NY flock is in is in denial.

Welcome to what WV went through in the early 2000s .. back in the 90s it was nothing to hear 10 to 15 a morning.. now if you hear 2 or 3 you are doing good..  I think it is an entire East Coast problem and eventually all the states will see similar..  the NWTF did a great job of bringing birds back but the population is not maintaining what it was at it's peak in the 90s .. I'm not sure where the blame lies though.  Right now the Midwest seems to have escaped this issue for some reason though.. TN, KY, MO, IA etc all have great gobbling and population so either they are doing something right management wise or there is some other culprit at work on the east coast, because they have just an many predators as we do.

If what your saying is true. Then what it sounds like to.me is that the WTF
replenished the states with more birds then the environment could sustain.
weather it be nesting, habitat or available food sources. And this took a few years to regulate to a self sustaining flock.
So in reality our numbers may appear low but this maybe all that we can sustain in order ro have a healthy population
Remember years ago there was not to many birds around. This was not due to the fact that they could not rebuild but in reality it was all that the environment could handle.

[wvboy]

That sounds very logical to me.. the population was booming the 80s and 90s after all the trap and transfer work in the 70s .. but started declining in the 2000s and has been on a steady decline since.. some of that may be attributed to forest management practice and predation (Deer herds have declined too for this reason I have no doubt), but more likely the level to sustain a turkey population has leveled out like you say.

[TauntoHawk]

I don't see a serious enough decline to cause warming in Greene County; that said because I don't see it doesn't mean there's not reason for concern in other counties. I think the population goes through cycles especially for game animals that depend on weather conditions for survival like having a warm dry spring for poults. Did I see the highest numbers I can ever remember, maybe not but there could have been years with inflated numbers after exceptional hatches.

Some food for thought is that with deer and turkey I always hear immediately following almost every season several people that had difficult years talk about how it was the worst year EVER. Good memories last far longer than bad ones, and for that we remember the days of booming gobbles, tags filled and strutting birds in every field but it's hard to go back and remember exactly how many days those same years were spent in the field  without hearing or seeing a thing. This past season is fresh in the mind so we remember those head scratching mornings filled with silence or driving past those empty fields wonder where all the turkeys went.

I can't definitively say whether populations were down this year, I can say that hunting was different and birds did not act "normal". I know that farms where you could drive by every day of a normal year and see several birds out strutting in various fields this year I did see a single bird out in these fields and yet we found multiple mature birds hanging deeper in the timber than we ever had to hunt them before. If we had driven around glass or sat our normal field edge roost spots we probably would have had a season devoid of turkey activity until about the 3rd week which is when I was told that birds started showing up in normal fields. What I did find is that the birds were the most susceptible to calls I could ever remember once they were located. We hardly killed any birds in "normal" spots but we killed a pile of them none the less. I watched 5 birds die in 5 days with all but one being part of a group of mature birds back in timber. I probably had 11 different birds in range over those 5 days. My buddy called in 16 birds for people and didn't kill a bird out in a field until the 3rd week of season. Encountered several days with no roost gobbling where birds broke lose mid-morning after many hunters had left the woods grumbling about a lack of turkeys.

[VaTuRkStOmPeR]

Kentucky has a 3 week season to protect nesting hens and minimize harvest.

Their numbers are down, just as Tennessee's are, as well, just not to the degree that the population in the NE is.

To me, protecting the hens is a simple, logical and immediate action that can be taken to help the birds.  We don't need ridiculous studies and political discussions to validate what is obviously a biologically sound change.

As far as hearing turkeys goes.... You can't judge a population based on what you hear but can using what you physically SEE.  The birds in NY aren't there like they were and that's the bottom line.