They shoot owls in CA, don't they?
Turkey
I have always believed that avian predators were a factor in the reduction of turkey populations.....especially poults. It will be interesting to see if turkey populations, as well as spotted owl populations experience any significant change.
I would think that hawks and eagles would represent a threat to turkeys, not sure about owls. One pair of bald eagles has massively reduced the turkey population around my deer club.
Thanks for sharing Jake, glad to see you're still amongst us...
Don't know if it's spotted, or not, but one of them noisy bastards loves to perch up in a cedar tree just outside my bedroom window.
According to Dr. Chamberlain, the preeminent expert, owls kill turkeys right off the roost. https://wildturkeylab.com/predation-from-great-horned-owls/
The issue they are having in the Pacific Northwest is migrating westward Barred owls ousting the Spotted owls with limited nesting sites in tree cavities... Am assuming the Barred owls being more aggressive pushing the Spotted owls out... What I don't understand is why don't the just put up more nest boxes for these tree cavity nesting birds... Nest boxes are cheap and I'm sure they have enough volunteers to place them...
Owls and hawks both kill mature and poult turkeys. Next time you see a hen and her brood in a field, watch what they do if the shadow of a bird casts over them.
Birds of prey love turkey.
Seen on a bumper sticker in timber country "If it's hootin I'm shootin."
What is so funny, Spotted, Barred and Screech owls nest in tree cavities... So does Kestrels, the sparrow hawk falcon...
“What I don't understand is why don't the just put up more nest boxes for these tree cavity nesting birds... ”
That’s like “fixing” the budget deficit by raising the limit — it only shifts the limiting factor on population density from nesting sites to something else, and like most quick “fixes”, it’ll most likely accelerate the real issue.
You’re absolutely right that if putting out nesting boxes is offered as a “non-lethal solution”, there will be plenty of well-intentioned volunteers willing to help…. And nothing that will actually address the problem will be done.
JMO, the problem we’re up against is that any species whose population was once reduced to near extinction has subsequently been elevated to some kind of mythical status, and well-meaning people will continue to press for protection, rather than management…. right up until the species begins to inconvenience them, personally.
It’s easy to complain about the toll that raptors can take on turkeys and other game birds, but you bring up the fact that those birds are much more exposed to predation due to an overgrown deer herd eating off all of the groundcover, and nobody wants to hear about filling doe tags…. And then when Anti-Hunting groups say that Hunters don’t give a rip about Conservation and just want more big game to hunt…. It’s kinda hard to say they’re Not Wrong…..
Maybe we should have saved the Dodo bird too?
So Barred owls are out competing Spotted owls as an evolutionary thing? It is what it is.
For years in the west we had massive forest fires due to logging being all but eliminated and lack of forest management- some of this all started with these spotted owls.
All of these unintended consequences- Massive fires along with millions of pounds of soot in the air- shows a lack of competent management. We need smart management- not politically influenced management.
"Wayne Pacelle, the president of Animal Wellness Action and an author of the statement, said it was dangerous for the government to start managing competition and social interaction among North American species"
Kind of funny when it fits their narrative for a particular species (culling barred owls) but not for others (reintroducing wolves).
“Maybe we should have saved the Dodo bird too?”
I think they’re working on that one as well. And again, why not? I think it’s the Dodo which was pretty much THE species which processed and distributed the seeds of plant species which are dying out without the co-evolved assistance of the birds.
So potentially, there is a great deal of environmental degradation/deterioration which could be reversed by restoring the biological systems & relationships which we humans have destroyed.
The thing is, you can’t just pick & choose. Doesn’t make any sense to reintroduce extinct species if you’re not equally invested in removing introduced species and restoring others which have become locally extinct, wherever that can be done without undue conflict with the human population….
But look at Hawaii with goats, cats, rats, pigs…. I think chickens are a problem in a lot of places as well…. And don’t get me started on Florida!
Was in Kansas turkey hunting and had a owl hit our decoy, scared the tom away we were hunting. It was fun time.
They have absolutely wiped out the turkey population on my place. I have one Tom and 4 hens. Use to have over 100 birds.
Wow GFL, sad but cool picture...
That's a crazy cool pic GFL!
They say one of the reasons baiting is bad for turkeys is that predators learn to key in on them for easy pickins.
I do know that Warren Idaho has a yearly spotted owl shoot!!! Even have a banner over the road as you pull in.
With all the avian and ground predators we now have, its amazing to me any poults survive to maturity. Maybe the Red Tail took a beating by that hen. I had to tell my neighbor a while back to stop free ranging her chickens. Between the foxes and hawks, they were taking a beating.
Probably, but I doubt Kristi Noem will draw a tag. Right now I think the only thing in season in CA is taxpayers. I heard Gavin Newsom got the only tag in that drawing!
Foxes where I used to live really decimated the turkeys. When we first moved there if I saw any hen they had 6-10 poults each. As years went by I would see 2-3 hens together with only a handful of poults between them. Had a nest close to my house that I was keeping an eye on then one day there whole nest was destroyed along with some of the hens feathers. I declared war and took out a coyote, two foxes and a raccoon out of kitchen window. The last year I was there in the winter there was a flock of around 45 birds almost all hens at that time.
