GREAT OUTDOORS: Ohio's fall turkey harvest remains modest

The final 2020 Ohio fall turkey harvest of 1,063 birds remains lower than in recent years even though more counties are now open for hunting this premier forest game bird. Since the primary spring technique of calling in males (gobblers) during the breeding season is not as effective in the fall, hens are legal game in the counties where there is an open fall season. One of the methods used in the fall is to rush toward a group of turkeys to "bust up the flock" and then hunt the birds as they attempt to regroup. Shots are more fleeting than having a gobbler strutting in place, as occurs in the spring. However, 40-to-50 percent of fall turkey hunting is done by bow hunters while in the field deer hunting, according to surveys conducted by the Ohio Division of Wildlife. Although there are 70 counties now open to fall turkey hunting, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood counties are among the 18 with only a spring season. The populations in these counties and the other 15 that are still closed to fall hunting are deemed too small to support hen harvests. Officially, the guidelines to opening counties to fall hunting include having the three most recent years with spring harvests over 50 gobblers and/or jakes (immature males), densities of at least one turkey per square mile of forest habitat, and some other factors regarding the status of adjacent counties, according to Mark Wiley, the Ohio Division of Wildlife's biologist tasked with statewide turkey management. As for the lower fall harvests, he pointed out that the past few years have seen lower turkey chick (poult) recruitment. Wiley explained that poult survival is impacted in many ways, but mostly by cool and/or wet springs. Young poults have an especially difficult time with thermo-regulation and the spring of 2020 was exceptionally cool statewide. Also, since many of the nests are located along wooded stream banks (riparian corridors), rainfall events that are heavy enough to cause flooding can wash away nests and/or drown poults. Spring surveys placed the number of poults per hen (PPH) at 2.2 this year, down from the 10-year average of 2.5. There seems to have been something suppressing their recruitment in the years that the weather is not a factor. Many suspect that predators, such as coyotes statewide and bobcats in some locations within Ohio, are responsible for lower turkey populations. Wiley says that neither has been formally implicated nor exonerated at this time. Nest robbers, such as raccoons, skunks, opossums, foxes and large snakes are thought to more frequently have impacts on eggs and young poults, according to published information from other states. At 2-3 weeks of age, poults are able to fly and will perch overnight in tree branches, protecting them from mammalian, but not avian, predators. Great Horned owls are the species most often known to prey on adult wild turkeys, but bald eagles and some of the larger hawks have been known to kill adult and poult turkeys. As is the case with all wildlife, high quality habitat can dampen predator impacts. Escape cover that provides obstacles and overhead protection can cut game bird losses significantly. High protein food sources, specifically insects, are well-established as crucial to fast growth of game bird chicks before seeds mature in the late summer and fall. Turkeys feed upon ants, grasshoppers, crickets, other insects and invertebrates. In years when a brood of 17-year periodic cicadas emerge in huge numbers, chick survival is notably improved due to the availability of this rich, abundant source of protein. In 2021, Brood X (10) Cicada emergence is due to occur in 15 states, including some southwestern Ohio counties. During its previous emergence in 2004, this portion of the state was still in the process of re-stocking wild turkeys, so positive effects on the population was inconclusive. Now that the wild turkey population is well-established in the counties where Brood X Cicada occurs, Wiley is anxious to see how well poult recruitment improves.