Brent: I do occasionally see a jake running thru here (more west of us normally), but even here once in a while. I've been told I'm wrong (by educated folks) but...I think turkey are bad news for grouse. They coincided with the grouse crash where I grew up.
I'm not happy to see them here..
It seemed to me that grouse and turkeys were co-existing pretty well when the turkey population peaked in Northwest PA. For a while, we had decent numbers of both. But after the coyotes became established, I started seeing more and more piles of feathers and bones of both turkeys and grouse (and rabbits, etc..) But it seemed like the grouse must have been easier prey, because I saw more dead grouse than turkeys... even though the turkeys were more numerous. And their population decline was more pronounced.
We were much better off without the coyotes than with them. I will continue to shoot every coyote I see.
