Back Yard this morning!

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
Mtn lions USUALLY can kill a deer from ambush. I'm thinking that the cat would
pretty quickly slink away if that window just opened or vanished. Sam the cat was out
in the back yard in Colorado one year, back when they let cattle roam over the whole
property, thousands of acres. A bull grazed up and Sam saw it at about 50 ft, and dropped
flat and slinked (slunk?) back to the house as flat as he could, as fast as he could. I happened
to be out there, and when he hit the porch, he looked back once and I opened the door. Into
the back bedroom and stayed under the bed for an hour.

Giant cat stomper in the back yard!! seemed to be his view of the situation.

Bill
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
When I was a teen in N Central Fla, we had a neighbor who was a Fish & Game officer. He specialized in
wild turkeys. He tracked them with radios, and captured them to send to other states, which had wiped
out all their turkeys by the early 1900s.
So - thanks to Fla for at least some of your turkeys. My friend said that they captured Fla turkeys and sent
them all over the country to reestablish the flocks. I don't specifically remembering him saying that he
had sent them to Nebraska, but he said all over the midwest.

Bill
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
They do quite well in Nebraska. We see them often in town. They are like deer and coons, they are at ease with humans.

Not sure if ours are from FL but I do know they were trapped and reintroduced decades ago.
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
Well that was in the mid to late 60s, so over 50 years ago, a lot of turkey generations to
adapt to the local conditions.

Bill
 

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
Geeez Brad! at least put some turkey stuffing in that flower pot for him to eat!

Talk about a time line: In 1964 I got my first PA hunting license I was 11 & I remember going out on the first day of small game with my two brothers and my cousin. I asked them what the turkeys tag was for and they all laughed! All of them saying "don't worry you will never see a turkey in Northeast PA! ".....by the mid 1990's my bothers weren't hunting anymore and my cousin had passed....but I was still out there every year from then on seeing more and more of them ( The PA Game Commission did a good job of bringing them back , albeit it took a lifetime) Now I would rather watch them then hunt them although this year the urge was there! Granted I live at the edge of the woods but still in a suburb of Scranton however my wife has told me our flock of 10 birds have been making the rounds closer and closer to the mid part of the suburb from her observation!
 

S Mac

Sept. 10, 2021 Steve left us. You are missed.
If I'm not mistaken a lot of restocked wild turkeys came from Mo. I think there are as many killed each spring in MO a some states have as a total population.
 

S Mac

Sept. 10, 2021 Steve left us. You are missed.
You're right about them being decimated in the early 1900's,. I've been told they would pull a wagon under a roost tree, shoot them and let them fall into the wagon.
 

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
There was a lot of that about that time period ! Most Pennsylvanian's don't even know there were almost none of the precious whitetail deer left in the state back then! Almost hunted to extinction ( at least in PA) The PA Game Commission stepped in and put an end to it all and brought back our whitetails but again by the 1980's the Buck population was down to spikers! So again they stepped in and changed the rules and man now we have some impressive buck! I for one give a big hand to the PA Game commission for their hard work! I don't always like the rules but somehow they know how to bring about change, and for the better! And they are doing this at a time and age when less new folks are taking up hunting! I am only a target shooter now, but I have to say they maintain our public ranges very well .... without any complaint from me! Yes there are a few days a year I have to take a break while they clean up and repair things and also shut it down for a day or two to make improvements....but they do a dang good job!
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
According to an online source, Missouri had a grand total of 2,500 birds in early 50s
then from 1954 to 1979 "trapping and transplanting" took place. They don't say from
where, but it seems pretty obviously that they came from outside of MO.

Huge swaths of Florida were nearly uninhabited, especially on the central and northern
west coast, and I think the turkeys were common there. Also, the swamps of southern
Fla were hard to travel through, so birds could hide there very well. West coast of Fla
is still pretty thinly populated. We had hunting seasons and saw them with some regularity
in the mid and late 60s.

Bill
 
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S Mac

Sept. 10, 2021 Steve left us. You are missed.
I've read that MO's flock was isolated, if I'm not mistaken on what's called Peck's Ranch in Texas Country MO. They were protected and trapped for restocking of the rest of the state. I do think that was in the 50's.