
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, October 25, 1993                   TAG: 9310270042
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

A NEW BALL GAME FOR TURKEY HUNTERS

Last fall, turkeys often eased down into the farm fields and fringe areas to feed. You'd see flocks of the big, bronze birds like clockwork in the morning fog and during the waning hours of the day. It made hunting easy, or as easy as turkey hunting ever becomes.

That resulted in a high percentage of hunters toting home toms and hens, even though turkey nesting success had been low. The total reported kill was 11,460, which didn't include what game officials said was an alarmingly high illegal kill.

It is going to be a different season this time. Turkeys won't be found in the fields as readily. They will be in the woods. This season will be dramatically different from last. It is a matter of mast.

Last year's near-failure of mast meant there wasn't much food in the woods for turkeys or other game, such as deer and squirrels. Wildlife had to come to the fields.

This time the mast crop is good. The acorn corp is fair and the soft mast - berries, grapes, fruit - is good to excellent.

"It is going to leave the turkeys fairly scattered," said Gary Norman, the upland game bird research biologist for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

What's more, turkeys will have to spend a lesser amount of their daylight hours feeding. That means less movement; less chance to come feeding across the view of a hunter, less time to leave scent for turkey dogs.

"Generally, turkeys are going to be loafing around with their heads up and pretty alert. In those conditions, it makes it pretty hard for hunters to harvest the birds," said Norman. "I'd say the harvest is going to be down."

Norman has been conducting an intensive turkey research project, one that involves equipping scores of birds with radio transmitters so their movements can be traced. One fact that has become evident from the research: Mast has a profound impact on the life of a turkey.

"I can't overstate the effect mast crops appear to have on populations," he said.

Last year's poor mast crop and the high kill likely sent fewer turkeys into the spring breeding season, Norman said. Those that made it tended to nest late. The delayed reproductive season could have been caused by the blizzard of March. The woods and field were late greening up.

"A lot of the nesting is triggered by a shot of nutrition in the spring when the green herbaceous materials propel the hens to a level when they can start nesting and incubating," said Norman.

So what you had was fewer birds nesting later than normal.

On the positive side, the hens that did nest appeared to have above-average success in poults' survival.

"Overall, it looked like turkey production was average to above average," Norman said.

All this adds up to a season that favors the experienced hunter, one with the skills and time and willingness to work at his sport.

by CNB