Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 10, 1994 TAG: 9404100094
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Gary Norman liked what he was seeing.
"I was a little concerned about the long winter we had," said Norman, who is the wild turkey research biologist for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. "But the development of spring grasses appears to be coming along pretty well."
What does herbaceous growth have to do with wild turkeys? And turkey hunting?
"I think that the spring green-up is a catalyst for the egg-laying and nesting activities," said Norman. "It provides that extra shot of energy for the hens that enables them to lay eggs and incubate for a 26-to 28-day period."
The gobblers, naturally, take notice when the hens begin to react to the ardor of propagation. That's where hunters arrive on the scene. They depend on the those thunderous, deep-throated gobbles from the ridge tops to locate a spring-season target.
"Hunters complained last year about the lack of gobbling," said Norman. "The gobblers would gobble, but very few times."
The closed-mouth philosophy probably had a lot to do with the stressful state of the turkeys last spring, said Norman. The mast crop of 1992 was poor, which meant a scarcity of food for wildlife during the winter months. The fat reserve of turkeys dropped. Then came the blizzard of mid-March, and that was followed by a late spring green-up. So toms really didn't have much to gobble about.
This year is different. The 1993 mast crop was above average. While the winter was long, and often tough, the green-up has arrived in good time. Hunters who have scouted for next Saturday's opening day of the spring season have reported hearing gobblers. One hunter on a scouting trip last week called in six toms.
"The turkeys are starting to break up and move around a lot right now," said Norman, who is tracking nearly 90 hens equipped with radio transmitters. "They have nesting areas that often are very different from the area where they spent the winter. I think there is a lot of mating going on out there right now, with hens looking for toms and getting together."
Norman prefers for the hens to be nesting when the season is in progress. That affords protection to the female birds, which might be mistaken for a gobbler or taken illegally.
"From a hunter's viewpoint, they would like to have the season open earlier, but from the biological objective I think it is probably better to wait just a little bit, to the middle part of April. A hen's biological worth is extremely high right when they are beginning to nest. They are the backbone of our future population."
The makeup of this spring's huntable population could be heavy on young and old gobblers, with a scarcity of middle-aged birds. Two-year old toms generally provide the bulk of the spring hunting season action, but the hatch in 1992 was below average, Norman said.
On either side of that hatch, reproduction was above average. That could result in a higher than normal number of young toms, called jakes, and three-year old birds.
Jakes normally account for less than 20 percent of the spring kill, but that figure likely will be higher this time, Norman said.
"A lot of hunters will hunt jakes, but I think that occurs only when there are no mature gobblers around. Then the jakes will gobble and respond to calls. Some of the jakes that are born early will have the capability to mate, and will do that. But by and large they are observers."
That's especially true when a 3-year old boss gobbler lives in the neighborhood.
by CNB