| Rio Grande Turkey 2
| Scouting AgainAdd to the valuation of what portion of the spring season to hunt it always remains that scouting must precede the turkey hunt. Simply picking a spot and hunting all will agree is a mistake. What was true for any Rio Grande Turkey spot the previous year can be counted on most years, but not every year. Tall grass CRP (best nesting) comes and goes with the ebbs and flows of farm commodity prices, landowners die or retire and lease contract may not be extended to the new owner as well as other impacts other than natural life cycles of any turkey flock exist. Population numbers rise and fall from year to year relative to the previous spring's rainfall during the critical period between chicks hatching and growing enough feathering to survive spring rains and colder temperatures.
This correlation between ground nesting birds and spring rains has been studied to our knowledge as early as 1962 published in the book: Arizona Game Birds a study that included vertical distribution of ground nesting birds distinguished by elevation and humidity. The NWTF has published similar studies of spring rain and turkey nesting/survival correlation in their magazine as well. While we have had these variable spring rains it appears the Rio Grande Turkey flocks continue to increase in spite of rainfall variation with most hunters surprised by the numbers they see. The region the Kansas Rio Grande Turkey flocks inhabit as described earlier is dry, not quite arid, and within the edge of the margin of arable farming country. A tough definition to describe without understanding of niche environments included within that description. For Kansas Rio Grande Turkey hunting divided the state horizontally in equal halves and then vertically by 2/3 west and 1/3 east helps define the niche within which we operate for Rio Grande Turkey hunts. Rio Grande Turkey occupy the western 2/3 of Kansas and have variable environments of less to more rainfall west to east and more large grains from north to south.
The value of this simplification of a gradually changing topography largely driven by the increasing evaluation of the great plains from east to west, is that the better Kansas Rio Grande Turkey hunting is in that marginal arable farming country with the greater large gain field density and higher rainfall. The very southwest corner of Kansas being the least dense with Rio Grande Turkey and the northeast corner of our western quadrant being the most dense with Rio Grande Turkey. Perhaps this very regionally isolated and habitat specific turkey illustration best describes how we as Mid-America Hunting Association will get the hunter to first the right region of Kansas or that of Iowa and Missouri for what he is after and then right to the spot of the right habitat to park his truck, step out and hunt. Further, illustration of our serving as the hunter's friendly point of contact to insure he is hunting in the right location would be where we develop our wetlands for duck hunting, that would be Missouri. This is the valuation of our being a business and not a hunting club. As a business we seek to spend our money where we get the most return. The value to the hunter is that he is hunting in a locality where he is most likely going to enhance his success potential. That is if we can get that hunter to travel. Every so often we will get a hunter that will try to box in nature to his desires in spite of reality. A turkey hunting example would be a hunter that wants to hunt Eastern and Rio Grande Turkey on the same day. That is not possible, the driving distance between and a single day's daylight time to hunt preclude this. An Eastern and Rio Grande Turkey hunt on the same trip over two days is very doable. Any hunter that attempts to seeks hunts outside of what nature provides we work with for only a short amount of time. Then like any good business we seek to cut the waste.
Local MysteryThe most interesting aspect about Kansas wild Rio Grande Turkey flocks are they will grow in size or the number of turkeys per flock rather than split into different flocks. Past years have found what we used to say was a typical Rio flock of 50 turkeys to more recent conversations about the occurrence of 100 + turkey flocks. This is relatively new to Kansas and as of yet without definitive empirical study. We are curious just how large a Rio Grande Turkey flock can become. Our Eastern Turkey flock individual turkey counts commonly are between 30 and 50 turkeys. That Eastern Turkey flock size seems uniform throughout its range in Kansas, Iowa and Missouri. The Eastern Turkey flocks are limited in size by unknown factors just as the Rio Grande Flocks remain a mystery of why they stay in one flock at larger counts rather than break up into separate turkey flocks. TruthsIn spite of all our observations and questions some turkey truths remain.
In the case of turkey poult survival, it comes down to protection from cold rain from hatch to 2 weeks of age. This 2 week period of the bell curve majority of most broods is during May and June. At around 2 weeks of growth the turkey chicks have sufficient feathering that rain induced hypothermia is not as much a survival factor and on a continuing decline as a survival factor for the remainder of the turkey life span. But, until that time a heavy rain or series of rains, especially during the day when the chicks are up and about and not under the hen's protective feathering will degrade a chick's chances of survival.
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One big Rio Grande Turkey, 1 3/8 spur.
