Linda G.
01-22-2005, 04:21 PM
Got a pm from a member of this board today that got me to thinking that the info I gave him might be of interest to a lot of people regarding the fluctuations in northern MI turkey populations over the years, so I've modified my response to him and hope the info is of use to others that hunt in northern Michigan:
*****-I love to hear from hunters like you, it's often the only way we have of letting folks downstate know what's going on up here.
I am very familiar with the area you're hunting in, although I've never seriously hunted turkeys there, I have hunted birds extensively there, planted trees and food plots out there for the turkeys, seen more than a few of them, and know a good many of the people supporting the birds in the villages of *******.
A little history: When the birds were first being brought into northern Michigan, it was believed that they needed almost a wilderness setting to survive. Often, a request for birds stocked in your area would be denied unless there was miles of wild stretches.
So the birds were stocked in places like *****, with no studies done on their potential survival in these areas. Remember, too, that the aim was to provide a new hunting resource for the public-so they had to be stocked on public land.
Fine and dandy, as we know in states like Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, but not in northern MI-there simply wasn't enough food to get them through our bitter cold and very snowy winter.
A lot of birds died, the smart ones made it to feeders the Traverse Bay Chapter of the NWTF and other chapters began setting out for them in the mid-80's...the birds did well, but time marches slowly on, folks move, die, and by the early 90's the majority of birds in that area were in the woods immediately surrounding the villages of ******, because the only way they had survived was because people in those villages fed them in the winter, most of them coming to our barns of what is now the MWTHA for the corn-no one even knew where the birds out in the woods were anymore, I guess.
If someone didn't take over, right away, for the guy that quit feeding that particular flock of birds, they didn't make it, and the numbers went straight down, some areas very quickly, others over the course of maybe 10 years or so if they were getting small amounts of food somewhere, but not enough. If someone didn't find someone else to take over, or we didn't know about it, or we couldn't find someone to take over, or the birds couldn't be located in the winters, well...
Beginning four years ago, the climate seemed to change, springs were very cold and very, very late, summers were cool, fall was very hot and ran into December. Hatches were nil to non-existent, and the numbers of all of Area J took a huge dive in 2003, to almost half what we had. Areas like where you hunt, already negligible, were hit the hardest.
We had a very good hatch in 2003, but late-a lot of the young poults didn't make it. A so-so, and still very late, hatch this year-you have to remember that most turkeys don't survive more than three years, and the flocks turn over quickly.
Follow the history of any introduced species to a new area, and you'll see a pattern there...not just wild turkeys. The first couple of decades, the numbers explode, much of it due to public interest in the new species, I'm sure. Then we deal with Mother Nature's way of making sure there's enough food for them in an area where there isn't-it's called carrying capacity, and comes in the form of hard winters, lousy springs, and predator populations that also rise as the introduced species' populations rise...you also deal with factors like disease, as we are with the deer. I've never seen a sick wild turkey up here.
Sooner or later, that will also begin to some degree in southern MI, how much will depend on how the weather goes, the amount of wild food available, predator control and supplemental food from people. Some folks think it's already started, with the flooding and resulting poor hatches southern MI had both last year and this year. I wouldn't know anything about the birds down there, but that's what I'm told.
So, there you have it...but we are feeding in excess of 10,000 birds in *******Counties-how many of them are on public land in your area I don't know. They usually come into the private land in the winter, then spread out onto the public in the spring, and because of the late springs, a lot of the flocks have been late to break into spring groups and haven't spread out until June or even later. That's probably also affecting you.
If you would like to continue to support the birds up here, the way to do it is the same as Fiji and a couple of other guys have-become a member of our chapter of MWTHA, which means your $10 goes straight to our winter corn feeding programs, no overhead at all, we're all grass roots, and consider making other donations of your time, labor, or cash, whatever you can.
You can read more about us at: http://www.mwtha.net
We should be able to get most of the fall's populations through the winter, as long as we have them located and on feeders-it's been very cold, but snow depths haven't been bad yet, and as long as we have the money to buy the corn, we'll be ok. We spend in excess of $15,000 every winter just on the birds in Area J, all raised from donations from folks like you, raffles, etc. We don't get any state assistance at all...
Take care, good luck...Linda
*****-I love to hear from hunters like you, it's often the only way we have of letting folks downstate know what's going on up here.
I am very familiar with the area you're hunting in, although I've never seriously hunted turkeys there, I have hunted birds extensively there, planted trees and food plots out there for the turkeys, seen more than a few of them, and know a good many of the people supporting the birds in the villages of *******.
A little history: When the birds were first being brought into northern Michigan, it was believed that they needed almost a wilderness setting to survive. Often, a request for birds stocked in your area would be denied unless there was miles of wild stretches.
So the birds were stocked in places like *****, with no studies done on their potential survival in these areas. Remember, too, that the aim was to provide a new hunting resource for the public-so they had to be stocked on public land.
Fine and dandy, as we know in states like Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, but not in northern MI-there simply wasn't enough food to get them through our bitter cold and very snowy winter.
A lot of birds died, the smart ones made it to feeders the Traverse Bay Chapter of the NWTF and other chapters began setting out for them in the mid-80's...the birds did well, but time marches slowly on, folks move, die, and by the early 90's the majority of birds in that area were in the woods immediately surrounding the villages of ******, because the only way they had survived was because people in those villages fed them in the winter, most of them coming to our barns of what is now the MWTHA for the corn-no one even knew where the birds out in the woods were anymore, I guess.
If someone didn't take over, right away, for the guy that quit feeding that particular flock of birds, they didn't make it, and the numbers went straight down, some areas very quickly, others over the course of maybe 10 years or so if they were getting small amounts of food somewhere, but not enough. If someone didn't find someone else to take over, or we didn't know about it, or we couldn't find someone to take over, or the birds couldn't be located in the winters, well...
Beginning four years ago, the climate seemed to change, springs were very cold and very, very late, summers were cool, fall was very hot and ran into December. Hatches were nil to non-existent, and the numbers of all of Area J took a huge dive in 2003, to almost half what we had. Areas like where you hunt, already negligible, were hit the hardest.
We had a very good hatch in 2003, but late-a lot of the young poults didn't make it. A so-so, and still very late, hatch this year-you have to remember that most turkeys don't survive more than three years, and the flocks turn over quickly.
Follow the history of any introduced species to a new area, and you'll see a pattern there...not just wild turkeys. The first couple of decades, the numbers explode, much of it due to public interest in the new species, I'm sure. Then we deal with Mother Nature's way of making sure there's enough food for them in an area where there isn't-it's called carrying capacity, and comes in the form of hard winters, lousy springs, and predator populations that also rise as the introduced species' populations rise...you also deal with factors like disease, as we are with the deer. I've never seen a sick wild turkey up here.
Sooner or later, that will also begin to some degree in southern MI, how much will depend on how the weather goes, the amount of wild food available, predator control and supplemental food from people. Some folks think it's already started, with the flooding and resulting poor hatches southern MI had both last year and this year. I wouldn't know anything about the birds down there, but that's what I'm told.
So, there you have it...but we are feeding in excess of 10,000 birds in *******Counties-how many of them are on public land in your area I don't know. They usually come into the private land in the winter, then spread out onto the public in the spring, and because of the late springs, a lot of the flocks have been late to break into spring groups and haven't spread out until June or even later. That's probably also affecting you.
If you would like to continue to support the birds up here, the way to do it is the same as Fiji and a couple of other guys have-become a member of our chapter of MWTHA, which means your $10 goes straight to our winter corn feeding programs, no overhead at all, we're all grass roots, and consider making other donations of your time, labor, or cash, whatever you can.
You can read more about us at: http://www.mwtha.net
We should be able to get most of the fall's populations through the winter, as long as we have them located and on feeders-it's been very cold, but snow depths haven't been bad yet, and as long as we have the money to buy the corn, we'll be ok. We spend in excess of $15,000 every winter just on the birds in Area J, all raised from donations from folks like you, raffles, etc. We don't get any state assistance at all...
Take care, good luck...Linda