Strong Turkey Season in Parts of State

A wild turkey walks in a Vicksburg neighborhood.  State biologists think this turkey season could be a good one.

In Monday’s paper was an article about this being a great spring for turkey hunters in east central and southwest parts of MS, but hunters in the Delta should be cautious because spring floods kept hens from nesting last year, says the state Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks.

This year’s 2-year-olds may be the only adult males around in the Delta, turkey biologist Adam Butler told other media outlets.

“For the third time in the previous four years, the MS River flooded much of the low lying areas of the Delta during the height of the spring nesting season,” said the 2012 turkey report posted on the department’s website.

Partly because numbers already were down in the area, the annual survey couldn’t even predict how many were likely, it said.  It said there may have been a moderate hatch outside the flood zone but few or no chicks within it.

The 2011 spring turkey season was one of the worst in years.  Butler said this year should be better.

The spring season opened March 15 and runs through May 1.

The report said Northeast Mississippi had relatively low hatches in both 2011 and 2010.

East Central and Southwest MS both have had strong hatches for several years.  The 2010 hatch was one of the best on record in the Southwest region, but only about one hen in three hatched a brood last year, it said.  It said the survey indicated very good 2010 hatch in Southeast Mississippi but fewer then one in four hens there hatching a brood last year.  (The Associated Press)