April 5 2008
This week’s message is about the spring turkey-hunting season in Texas.
According to Jason Harding of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department turkey program coordinator, "I have been getting reports from many of our field biologists, and they all agree that this is going to be a good season in Rio Grange turkey country due to the 2007 spring and summer rains and mild temperatures.
"So, there should be lots of jakes seen, (that’s young 'uns ) making it a fun year to call in lots of birds. There will be plenty of mature gobblers as well, so hunters should not hesitate to take to the field."
TPWD harvest surveys estimate that nearly 88,000 hunters take part in Texas spring turkey season and take about 23,000gobblers. Apparently, almost three out of four hunters don’t get a bird. Most of the state’s spring turkey hunting activity occurs in South Texas and in the Hill Country, where Hardin noted timely rainfall could give the bird population a boost.
"In south Texas, it wouldn’t hurt to get a little rainfall to green it up. We still have some herbaceous plants on the ground, but it has been extremely dry in South Texas. The birds are still going to be active, but some rain would kick things off faster."
"On the other hand," Hardin noted, " there was too much rain in East Texas and many of the East Texas turkey poults (again, that’s young 'uns) did not survive. Too much exposure in the first few weeks will lead to low survival." he explained. "However, the population as a whole is stable and will probably provide an average season."

Statewide regulations allow the use of shotgun, rifle, handgun, legal archery equipment or crossbow to take Rio Grande turkey (Now if a crossbow ain’t illegal, what kind of bow is? Flaming arrows maybe, or perhaps a hand grenade tied on to the end of the arrow?) However, individual landowners and public hunting areas may further restrict the devices used. The bag limit for Rio Grande turkey is four turkeys per license year. Regulations and bag limits vary by county, so check the county specific rules where you are hunting.
On top of everything else, Eastern turkey hunting has a one gobbler bag limit, and all harvested birds must be taken to a check station within 24 hours ….a check station?…must be for the autopsy, right?
To sum it all up Gary Calkins, TPWD district wildlife biologist in Jasper, puts it this way where we have birds, we have birds."
Presumably, where we don’t have birds, we don’t have birds. Why not say that in the first place?
Let’s hear it for Gary Calkins.

Till next week
Helga Biermeister
Secretary