Outdoors: Turkeys plentiful for season opener

Spring has definitely sprung and signs are everywhere. Birds are singing, trees are blooming and the days are getting longer. If you’re a turkey hunter one sure sign of spring is a gobbler strutting his stuff for a harem of hens.

It’s happening all over the state right now and the seasons kick off today. According to officials, turkey numbers are better than in recent years.

“We look pretty good for most of the state except for far southwest Kansas where we had poor production due to the drought, although that’s not one of our primary production areas anyway,” said Jim Pitman, small game program coordinator for the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism (KDWPT). “Northwest to north central Kansas got a little too much rain last summer but they still have a lot of adult birds but the number of jakes will be down a little.”

The good news is traditional turkey hotspots in the eastern half of Kansas saw better production than in recent years.

“We had really good weather for production which we really needed because we’d been down quite a bit over the last four or five years,” Pitman said. “Our data shows good numbers in northeast Kansas and I’ve had good reports from our field staff there, too.”

Kansas has about 42,000 hunters who chase turkeys in the spring and about 18,000 of these are nonresidents. Turkey hunters buy about 65,000 turkey permits a year (each hunter may buy two spring permits).

All these hunters are more successful than not, but it does matter where you’re at in the Sunflower State.

“It varies quite a bit across the state,” Pitman said. “But statewide we’re up in that 60 percent ballpark which is outstanding and one of the best in the country.”

Success is even better the further west you go according to Pitman, as much as 70 percent or better in some areas.

“Probably because you’re changing from Easterns to Rio subspecies which are a little more vocal,” he said. “There are also differences in habitat out there as it’s more linear.”

Southeast Kansas had the lowest success rates according to Pitman and they were in the neighborhood of upper 40’s to 50 percent.

Because of the decrease in the number of birds in some areas of Kansas the harvest figures have gone done in recent years when looking at trends, although statewide figures are pretty stable.

“It was down as much as 50 percent in southeast Kansas compared to what it was five years ago,” Pitman said. “But a lot of the nonresidents who hunted southeast Kansas went out west and shifted to where the birds were. Harvest in northeast Kansas has been down some, but not as severely.”

Flooding and heavy rainfall in 2007-08 are blamed for much of the decline in these areas.

“To maintain a stable population you need close to two poults per hen for production every year,” Pitman said. “In ’07 it was .3 and in ’08 it was .5, which were the two worst years we’ve ever recorded in southeast Kansas.”

The last couple years have been good as far as production.

“2010 was about average and last year was better than average in southeast Kansas,” Pitman said. “It just takes a couple years of production to recoup those losses from previous years so we’re headed the right direction.”

Permission to turkey hunt private land is available to resourceful individuals who do their homework and aren’t afraid to knock on a few doors. It’s harder to get permission these days for various reasons but still much easier than for deer hunting.

For those without any private land connections there are other options. One that’s proven popular in recent years is the Kansas spring turkey Walk-In Hunting Area (WIHA) Program.

“It’s been outstanding and a big draw for the state,” Pitman said. “I have lots of non-residents call me regularly asking about the WIHA program.”

Pitman is impressed with the use of the 160,000 acres or so enrolled in the program.

“About 15 percent of our hunters utilize it,” he said. “And it gets quite a bit of use from residents who have good luck there, too.”

Maps of the areas are available online at www.kdwpt.state.ks.us, or in booklet form from regional and state park offices of the KDWPT.

Public areas are another option. These areas are state-owned and much larger than the acreages enrolled in the WIHA program. Size can be an advantage, but some of them are close enough to major metropolitan areas they get added attention.

“Our public areas that are good can vary from year to year, depending on production,” Pitman said. “Melvern is going to be good, as is Clinton, Milford, Lovewell and Kanopolis, just to name a few.”

The archery and youth turkey season starts Sunday and runs through April 10.

“We have 4,000 youth and 6,000 archers who hunt during this special season,” Pitman said. “When we instituted those seasons we doubled the numbers of youth and archery hunters in the state so it’s been pretty popular and helps spread out the harvest a little bit.”

The regular season opens one-half hour before sunrise April 11 and concludes at sunset May 31.

This spring turkey season promises to be a good one. Kansas’ turkey hunting tradition is strong and there are plenty of birds. Pitman believes one problem sometimes encountered during the early part of the season, birds in huge flocks, may be a thing of the past at least for this year.

“I think because of the warmer weather this year the birds are already busted up and it’s going to be good right from the beginning,” he said. “Get out there and hunt and have a good time as we’ve got a lot of birds.”