Originally Posted by MOGC
Originally Posted by cooper57m
Last Spring there were birds all over the place near my house. I heard them every morning and it took me only 1/2 hour of hunting to get my bird. This year, I haven't seen a bird near me and haven't heard a thing. I'm not sure what happened to them but the numbers are way down by me. We do have coyotes and lots of Barred Owls have moved into our woods. I'm thinking major predation.


Coyote aren't great turkey hunters. Coyote certainly will kill and eat turkeys given the chance but they aren't a major problem overall for turkey populations. Barred owls also aren't a player on turkeys. Great Horned Owls are a different thing. Great Horned Owls will certainly prey on turkey, waterfowl also. Bobcat are great turkey hunters.

The biggest problems for good turkey populations are nest raiders, nesting habitat and weather during nesting and shortly after. Raccoons, skunks, opossum, feral hogs, crows, black snakes, fox, ect. are hell on eggs and poults. Nesting habitat is important and so is decent weather. Cold heavy rains wash out nest, flood habitat and kill pouts.



Bad weather when they're nesting, and predators that raid nests are indeed the biggest reasons for low turkey numbers. I actually witnessed a coyote catch a turkey that as coming to my call, ambushing it in a broomsedge field. I've always killed bobcats where turkeys were found also. But, although the larger predators do eat turkeys, it's the nest raiders that need to be controlled.