East Texas Thunder Chicken Rut is On!!

[BowOnly81]

My brother started East Texas Hunting Club and is now getting together with NWTF and should increase population in the future. Hope so at least.

[backwoods]

Has anyone heard definitive results or updates from the super stocking efforts?
It’s been a couple of years and posts like this seem encouraging but I’m not sure if there is wide spread success or not

[GraceNmercy]

Has anyone heard definitive results or updates from the super stocking efforts?
It’s been a couple of years and posts like this seem encouraging but I’m not sure if there is wide spread success or not

I keep pretty close tabs on the super stocking sites around Anderson, Cherokee, and Henderson counties, and those populations are doing well and expanding.

We do an NWTF outdoor education for youth and outdoorsmen interested in Wildlife management every spring at Gus Engling WMA. We were out there doing gobble counts with the biologist last month and heard a lot of birds, and saw them all over the place.

West of HW 19 in Anderson/Henderson county line there's been 3 super stockings on both public and private lands. Two site stockings have been completed with over 80 easterns + 80 rios (over 160) per site, and the last site is currently half stocked with easterns and will be completed next year. That region (western Anderson/Henderson county) is part is the post oak Savannah where hybrids originally occurred, which is why both species were released.

Further to the east of HW 19 deeper into the piney woods region easterns have been released in large numbers. Attached below are pictures of a couple of strutting toms courting hens that I received a couple of days ago from a friend who organized a co-op in Anderson county where 90 birds were released last winter/spring (2016/17). In that same year after the release those birds had a very successful hatch and by mid summer the locals had seen hen/poult flocks with up to 40 chicken sized poults...and those were only the one's they were aware of. I was out there in someone from Parks & Wildlife videoing this past winter and we got busted by a flock of 40-50 birds. It was amazing seeing that many huge easterns flying through the tree tops from the forest floor.

The original super stocking test site in southeast Anderson county that was done in 2007/8 has done exceptionally well, and birds from that release have been travelling all up and down the neches river and are pretty thick in some areas. I've been getting multiple reports of hens and jakes up near Cuney, well to the north, and Pert, which is well to the northwest of the original release site. Someone even sent me a video recently.

I am currently working on another site of about 20,000 acres to the south and east of Frankston to the south of lake Palestine. We're currently trying to see how many landowners have done prescribed burns or thinnings since we initiated this last year, before we decide to proceed with evaluations or push it back another year to give them more time to implement habitat projects. That will keep from failing and having to wait another 2-3 years to start over is enough habitat work hasn't been done.

The Cherokee county release done within the past couple of years, which is just to the southeast of the original 2007 test super stocking site in Anderson county, is also doing well. That entire area of the neches river basin has been one of the primary focal areas for turkey releases as the river will act as a major travel corridor as those growing populations expand. The super stockings work, and I encourage more landowners to come together to for co-ops and improve habitat to take advantage of the super stockings while they're still being done.

[rattler03]

great info, gracenmercy, thanks

[Chew]

You gonna knock one down? =)

[GraceNmercy]

You gonna knock one down? =)

Yep...will be in deep east Texas this weekend when the season opens on Sunday..

[Snowflake Killa]

They have put out hundreds on our place. Might see one a year and the ones that you do see are dumb as dirt.

[SnJGuin]

Man, I wish I had turkeys on my lease up in Marshall.

[bowhuntingw]

They have put out hundreds on our place. Might see one a year and the ones that you do see are dumb as dirt.

I’ve discovered, thru state officials, that a lot of the eastern release birds are “problem”birds from other states. Meaning areas where they were a nuisance. They became a problem in places like state parks/residential areas. That’s why many of them are seen acting stupid and standing on cars and barns.

[sqiggy]

I’ve discovered, thru state officials, that a lot of the eastern release birds are “problem”birds from other states. Meaning areas where they were a nuisance. They became a problem in places like state parks/residential areas. That’s why many of them are seen acting stupid and standing on cars and barns.

That might explain the turkey tracks I found on my hood of my truck about 2 yrs. ago when I was parked down in the bottom. This was Panola Co., but hadn't heard of any kind of release around us.

[backwoods]

Thanks GraceNMercy.
If you get any updates on the Angelina / Jasper county super stocking efforts please let us know.

[GraceNmercy]

They have put out hundreds on our place. Might see one a year and the ones that you do see are dumb as dirt.

Parks & Wildlife don't put out that many birds in one location at one time, so either you're talking about a site where the birds have just multiplied, or there's a good chance someone released pen raised wild turkeys which is typically the reason you find a lot of them don't act so wild. That's also Illegal just in case someone didn't know that.

Only place I know some of the birds don't act real skittish is at the original super stocking site done in 2007 in southeast Anderson county. Those birds are descendants of the original birds released in that area, and have multiplied so much without any hunting pressure that they don't recognize humans as a threat. Even Jason Hardin talked about how some of those Texas born birds in that area will stand around staring at ya. That'll change big time when a season is opened in Anderson county.

The birds at the other sites I've visited seem pretty wild though...especially in the rushy Creek area. Very skittish birds and will burst in to flight as soon as they think you're too close...

[GraceNmercy]

Thanks GraceNMercy.
If you get any updates on the Angelina / Jasper county super stocking efforts please let us know.

I'll check with Jason...first year after release I think there were a few hens to nest, but if I recall he said it was nothing to get excited about. That was 2016, so not sure about last years nesting season. I knew they released a few extra birds there while finishing up Brushy Creek last year because they were doing research on those national forest birds, so they got well over the typical 80 birds on that Angelina site. The second and third year after release the nesting attempts are usually better, so hopefully we can get a good hatch this year on the Angelina. Brushy Creek was just an exception to get as many poults the first year after release, but that's a praying man who organized that co-op, so maybe that's the difference...lol

[Snowflake Killa]

I'm sorry I didn't count them but I know last year alone they put out 40

[GraceNmercy]

I'm sorry I didn't count them but I know last year alone they put out 40

What area is that?