That's because everything that fits into a turkey hunting forecast -- reports from landowners, oil well pumpers, state wildlife biologists and anyone else interested in turkeys --all point to another great season for the approximately 55,000 Texas hunters who'll head into the woods this spring. And when you consider that approximately 40 percent of those can be expected to take at least one gobbler this season (some will take more, as most Texas counties have a liberal four-bird-per-license yearly bag limit for Rio Grandes), the odds of success are high.

And that's just for Rio Grandes. Eastern turkeys also are now hunted in 43 counties, up one county from last year, thanks to the ongoing success of a continuing eastern turkey restoration program initiated in the 1970s. Easterns were stocked in only one county in the program's initial year, but have since been stocked throughout their former range. The program has been so successful that Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officials now report established populations of eastern turkeys in virtually every county with suitable habitat.

The Rio Grande turkey seasons will run from April 1 to May 14 in 153 Texas counties with a four-bird bag limit, and from April 1-30 in 11 counties that have a one-bird bag limit. The East Texas season for easterns runs from April 1-30 with a one-gobbler bag limit.

Just where are your best chances for bagging a gobbler to be found this season? My answer: anywhere you can hunt that has a population of birds. But if you want to go by statistics alone, the answer would have to be the Edwards Plateau or Cross Timbers ecological regions, which draw approximately 75 percent of Texas' spring turkey hunters.

Region-to-region comparisons indicate that the Edwards Plateau has had the highest annual hunter success ratio since spring turkey hunting was first allowed, with around 7,500 gobblers per year being taken there. Second behind the Edwards Plateau is the Cross Timbers area, which stretches from Fort Worth north and westward to Wichita Falls and Brownwood.

Although South Texas doesn't draw as many hunters as do the Edwards Plateau and Cross Timbers, the Brush Country does have the highest hunter success rate. Approximately 75 percent of all hunters who go to South Texas bring home a bird.

Hurricane Rita struck the lower Pineywoods area last year, and the biggest question mark that still exists in some areas of southeast Texas relates to the effect that the storm may have had on bird populations. Rita roared ashore in late summer, and so didn't affect nesting efforts, but it may have made some impact on bird populations in the hardest-hit areas. Nevertheless, overall prospects for the 2006 season remain excellent, especially for areas in which high turkey populations have historically existed. Here's how things shape up from one region to the next.

CROSS TIMBERS
Excellent nesting efforts and poult survival have been a standard for this area west of Fort Worth for several years. That's owing primarily to timely spring and early-summer rains that have provided the birds with adequate moisture for egg hatching, good ground cover, and a plentiful supply of grasshoppers and the other insects so important for the nutrition of the young of the year.

The extreme southeastern areas are a little uncertain, owing to the possible loss of birds and their habitat caused by the high winds and flooding brought by Hurricane Rita.