Luring in a spring gobbler is as exciting and challenging as bugling in a bull elk or rattling up a trophy buck.

Story and photography by Bob Zaiglin

Following a long fall season of surveying deer herds on ranches I work with proceeded by an intense 10 day period of filming deer in Mexico, I look forward to spending time in the spring pursuing long beards.

Spring is quite exhilarating as nature resurrects before our eyes.  The lackluster drab color of winter vegetation erupts into a vibrant green and the ground layer becomes littered with colorful forbs emanating every color of the spectrum.  It’s unquestionably the most beautiful time of the year and the rich diversity of migrating song birds is another one of its attributes.  Those feathered arrivals fill the air with a cacophony of melodies in an attempt to attract a mate, but the most loquacious bird is the resident Rio Grande turkey.

When it comes to the pursuit of trophy deer, Dimmit, Webb, LaSalle, and Maverick counties attract most attention, but it’s Sutton, Edwards, Kerr, and Uvalde counties that turkey hunters gravitate to in the spring.

Sutton County may be the premiere turkey-producing county in the state.  Visitors are made even more aware of this fact when they see gobblers strutting on the grounds surrounding the Sutton County Courthouse.

This portion of the Hill Country can be described as flat to slightly undulating blanketed with short grass interspersed with oak and cedar motts representing desirable habitat and roosting sites for the birds.  Turkey, however, occur throughout much of Texas, providing sportsmen ample opportunity to pursue this Texas relic.

The first spring turkey hunting season was conducted 52 years ago in Kerr County.  Landowners and even some sportsmen, opposed the spring season initially because some felt that the influx of sportsmen would disturb nesting birds and impact the Rio Grande turkey population estimated at some 400,000 at the time.

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