ice storm

[Gopherlongbeards]

Well, got the first real ice storm of the winter, lots of freezing rain and slush. Hopefully it's not too rough on the birds. Luckily there wasn't much snow on the ground for it to crust over.

[Treerooster]

Whats the forecast like?

Is the ice going to hang around a while?

[Gopherlongbeards]

looks like it. highs in the low 30's tomorrow and Tuesday, then single digit highs and - teens below 0 lows the rest of the week. We got mostly snow here in the metro, but there was a lot more ice/freezing rain south of here.

[kygobbler]

Hey gopher, maybe you or someone can answer a question for me. A few days ago I read that parts of KY got 4" of ice in places. How much ice or how bad does the weather have to be to cause turkeys to die?

[shaman]

It has to be really, really bad. If you look at a place like Minnesota, and a place like Kentucky, you figure that MN has a good turkey population. Therefore, it would have to be worse than MN in KY before KY gobs would be hurt in a bad way

We had a localized die-off one winter around us. A couple of hollers were hit with snow, bad ice, and lots of cold. I was only a couple miles away, and the turkeys were unfazed over by me. Look on the map, and see Willow, Neave, and Browning's Corner. The die off occured between Browning's Corner and RT 539. I'm between 539 and Rt 10 and I did not see a thing. A grouse hunter hunting south of Browning's Corner Road and west of 539 reported dead turkeys everywhere.

My stretch has lots of ice. The power lines were down for 6 weeks. We could not get to camp until the last weekend in March.

[turkey junky]

i dont think the ice will hang around to long at least i hope? looks like 37 tomorrow & 35 the next day? hope that helps melt some??? if not then it is going to get cold like 10-18 cold for the fri-sun so i hope the birds do ok as ice & cold cold temps do make for a good mixture!!!

[Gopherlongbeards]

I would think they should still be ok, it has been a pretty mild winter so far, although not as mild as last year. As far as how much it takes to start killing them, I don't know. 2 years ago we had some significant winter mortality, but there was a lot more snow. I have heard as long as snowpack is less than 12" turkeys do not have much trouble finding food? I would guess gobblers are better able to survive winter weather than hens and birds of the year (longer and stronger legs, bigger bodies)? Shaman and Charlie would have a much better idea than me about this.

[charlie elk]

Here in W Central WI it has been freezing drizzle all day and it is forecast to continue all Monday night. The forecast is calling for subzero temps later this week. We are entering the winter period of "the ice sheet", at least that is how I refer to it. If the temps stay below freezing for longer than 2 weeks (according to wildlife biologists) the turkeys may start to suffer.
However, so far, this winter has been a cake walk for wildlife. The late December birds killed had incredible amounts of fat all over their bodies, not only did I find this on the birds I killed but many other hunters over a wide area reported the same thing. So as of about 3 weeks ago the birds were very, very well fed and the fields and forest have been relatively ice and snow free.
Should the ice sheet stay and increase between now and March then we could have a die off about mid March like in 2010. March is the deadliest for wildlife around here.
The order of death is usually the young of the year jakes & jennies, adult males then hens of breeding age. This is one of the many reasons why many fall hunters prefer to shoot birds of the year.
This winter due to a mild 2011 winter and excellent spring nesting conditions in 2012 we have, what I suspect a record number of turkeys across the landscape and mostly young ones. Perhaps more turkeys than the carrying capacity of the land? If that is the case our turkeys could be in trouble come March.
Vic and I just came back in from a "tour", no matter the weather or season we're out there. The turkeys were holding tight on their roosts, no sign of any feeding activity since the snow/rain yesterday. So far, there is about 2 inches of ice across the ground.

Good news for your turkeys around your cabin treerooster, mostly fluffy snow up there, which is good news for grouse and turkeys.

[Treerooster]

Good news for your turkeys around your cabin treerooster, mostly fluffy snow up there, which is good news for grouse and turkeys.

Thanks Charlie thats good to hear. I have the weather for the area on my phone, but it really doesn't tell you what the conditions on the ground are.

Hopefully the ice/extreme cold contitions won't last too long and use up the fat reserves too early. We got a long ways to go yet.

[ticklishtompro]

We have been very lucky over in this part of the state. We had some ice 2 weeks ago, but it only lasted a few days. We got some yesterday, but it pretty much melted today and it is supposed to hit 50 tomorow. Most of the fields have hardly had any snow cover for very long periods of time. When we did have the snow, they fed where the farmers are spreading manure. As long as it doesn't hang on to long into March, we should be good to go here.