I dropped the flopping Rio as warm, dark-red blood oozed out of a gash by my thumb. A few moments later the old bird was as dead as a stone -- but I suppose he got the last laugh: I still wear a nasty scar on my left hand from that ornery gobbler.

SPRING TURKEY SEASON IN TEXAS
I’m not sure which I enjoy more, reflecting on great turkey hunts from years past or the anticipation of a new season.

Like fine wine, tales of hunts from years gone by tend to get better with age. In stories of 9-inch toms that got away, the escapees suddenly become 12-inchers when the tale’s retold among friends.

In such reveries I tend to forget the clouds of mosquitoes, the hot, sultry afternoons and the buzzing of a rattlesnake encountered in the dark. Instead, I remember the good things: the mornings full of numerous longbeards gobbling their heads off from a roost tree in the gray gloom of first light; the drumming of a strutting tom, and the sound of his stiffly bent wings dragging across the rocky ground as he danced ever closer. Fond memories like those call me back to the turkey woods every spring.

Of course, we all know that the outcome of hunts in years gone by can’t be changed -- but the prospects for a new season are endless, and promising. What will be the story to tell after this next season?

DROUGHT YEAR TURKEYS
In the spring and summer of 2006, some parts of Texas experienced a terrible drought. How does that lack of rainfall affect turkeys? I asked my friend Ty Bartoskewitz, a wildlife biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department in South Texas, for his thoughts.

“Drought is particularly hard on turkeys because the lack of rainfall creates poor nesting conditions due to lack of cover,” he told me. “That lack of cover increases the risk of predation, but it also decreases the body condition of the hen as she goes into the egg-laying season because of a shortage of food, particularly insects at this time, which aid in the elements used for egg production.

“And the poults, if they do hatch, need small greens and insects to make it the first few weeks of their life cycles, which are usually absent without a little moisture. Fall and spring moisture are extremely important in setting up prime conditions that will benefit turkeys.”

Here’s a closer look at what to expect across Texas this spring.

CROSS TIMBERS
My friend Ronnie Parsons hunts a sprawling ranch at the western edge of the Cross Timbers region. He spends lots of time on the ranch in the spring and summer. Most years he sees lots of turkeys, but in spring and summer 2006 his report was grim.

“I have seen zero turkey poults this year,” he said. “I think the drought conditions that existed all summer on our ranch caused the turkey hatch to be essentially zero. In the months of June, July and August 2006, we only had .04 inches of rain. I would estimate that the existing turkey population is down about 15 percent from last year. The 2007 spring season will be down from last year because of die-off and predation.”