Photo by D. Toby Thompson.

The three consecutive days when I ranged over hundreds of acres of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forest in pursuit of turkey flocks will always be among my fondest memories. The first day had been spent trying to locate the source of all the hot scratchings. However, every time I felt the birds were just around the bend on a logging road or mountainside, I came up empty-handed or had made a strategic error.

On the morning of the second day, I heard the birds fly down and ran toward them in an attempt to scatter the gang. However, the bust was a very poor one and most of the turkeys ran off together, instead of flying in different directions. The former circumstance was obviously not the objective for it meant that the flock would be less inclined to respond to my calls. Even though I spent the rest of the day roaming the national forest, I never could find that group of birds again.

The morning of the third day found Dame Fortune being a little kinder. As I was again searching for the flock, I came across a ridge where the scratchings indicated that the birds were using this particular area over a period of days. The scratchings ranged from a day old (where the inside ring showed brown topsoil and no leaves) to as much as a week old (where the forest duff was gray and the ring had leaves within). Adding to the area's appeal were the red oak acorns that lay everywhere on the ridge.

With an abundance of both sign and hard mast, I decided to set up on the ridge side and call periodically. About an hour later, I heard the sounds of turkeys walking and scratching, perhaps 100 yards from me around the bend of the mountain.

I emitted some kee-kee runs, rested the 12 gauge on my knee, and scanned the mountainside ahead. About 20 minutes later, the sounds of the flock became even louder -- though the assemblage was still not within sight -- and I shouldered the shotgun. Shortly afterward, the first bird popped into view at a distance of about 45 yards. The jenny was followed by several more jennies along with the usual assortment of jakes and the flock hen.

Several minutes later, most of the flock was now about 40 yards distant. I decided to shoot the first member that moved within 35 yards and was clear of any other birds, as ethically and legally I did not want to run the risk of killing two turkeys with one shot. My three-day quest for a national forest turkey was almost at an end.

Then Dame Fortune metamorphosed into Ill Fortune. The flock hen putted at my well-camouflaged form, and at that sound, the entire flock turned tail and ran back the way it had come. A few seconds earlier, turkeys had covered the ridge. Now they were gone. I never found the gang again.

Long-time readers of this magazine know that this writer is a big fan of West Virginia's public-land hunting. The combination of national forest land, state wildlife management areas, and state forests gives Mountain State sportsmen a dazzling variety of options to choose from. Moreover, through the funds generated by the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (DNR) Conservation Stamp, the state is always looking to add more public land to its already impressive holdings.

The problem the past few years, though, has been the series of poor hatches that have occurred on both public and private land in most of the state. Last autumn, for instance, hunters only harvested 1,186 turkeys in the Mountain State, up slightly from the 2005 tally of 1,130, but below the 2004 total of 1,357. A point of emphasis here is that West Virginia is not the only state in the region to be experiencing a downturn in its turkey population. Virginia, likewise, has endured the same problem that has caused the Mountain's State's flock to decrease -- poor hatches. In addition, the same phenomenon has occurred in other states as well.

Indeed, to give some historical perspective, not since the 1960s have the fall harvests been so low. During that decade, the wild turkey was at the beginning stages of its comeback in the Northeast and Southeast. For instance, between 1966 and 1968, the West Virginia tallies were 1,334, then 989, and 1,697, respectively.

Of the 2006 total of 1,186, some 1,004 birds came from private land. In the past, many hunters from around West Virginia traveled to the Monongahela and the George Washington and Jefferson national forests to fall hunt. These days (with gas prices so high and harvests so low), they are more likely to stay closer to home, which at least partially accounts for the fact that only 182 turkeys were killed on public land last autumn. Nevertheless, some of the public land destinations are intriguing possibilities for this October.

GREENBRIER STATE FOREST
Mike O'Brien, assistant superintendent of the Greenbrier State Forest, told me that turkeys were scarce on this 5,130-acre tract during the fall of 2006. In fact, only four birds were checked in the entire season. Nevertheless, O'Brien stated that all it would take for the flock to rebound is one solid hatch.