The situation with turkeys isn’t all too different from the situation with soil……You have something like 8-12 main variables influencing the outcome and “turning the adjustment knob” on any one variable or multiple variables from site to site has ripple effects that can be difficult to wrap your head around when the visual cues are multiple links down the chain from the cause. Each of these "variable knobs" are turned to different settings from one county to the next and what may be the main variable of influence in one spot may be different from the next one.

I imagine the 140,000 acres of mouse filled grass prairie in the heart of the three counties I mentioned previously is a big, big draw for avian predators……I don’t know how many hawks all the rest of you see but its common to hear 2 or 3 screaming out here anytime you walk out the door. Part of the issue is likely the fact that without any grazing herds present, we are producing an overabundance of tall thick grass compared to what we should be producing in this type of ecosystem ……which probably in turn produces an overabundance of mice and other small prey.