Enjoy those easy-to-see large flocks of turkeys feeding in the fields while you can. In the next few weeks, the winter flocks will break up, and where you saw them last weekend is not where they’ll be when spring turkey hunting season opens in April. Bagging a wild turkey is a challenge for even the most experienced hunters. Of the 50,000 turkey hunting licenses sold in Iowa each spring, about 20 percent are placed on a bird. “Turkeys have home field advantage. We go where they live and use calls that try to mimic the sounds of a hen. We are trying to reverse nature and get the Tom to come to the hen, which he knows is wrong. If you can frustrate the Tom enough that he ignores his instincts and goes looking for this fake hen, then as a hunter you have a chance,” said Jim Coffey, forest wildlife research biologist for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. “Plus, they have excellent eyesight and hearing so not only do we have to sound realistic, we have to blend in with the landscape and stay motionless. That’s what makes turkey hunting such an intimate activity. Sounds easy.” What brings hunters back year after year is the experience of when the bird does come in. The “dance” is what brings hunters back. And since predicting when the bird will come in is not possible, planning and preparing before the season arrives is an essential step toward success. Iowa’s 2019 spring turkey hunting season begins with a youth season April 5-7, followed by four specific seasons. Season 1 is April 8-11, Season 2 is April 12-16, Season 3 is April 17-23 and Season 4 is April 24 to May 12. An archery only season is April 8-May 12. This year turkey hunters will notice that the youth season dates were changed back to the traditional three day season. Youth hunters with an unfilled tag may use it in any of the remaining spring turkey seasons. The key is for the youth tag to be purchased before the youth season closes because once that season is over, that option is no longer available. In addition to the youth license change, the shot size regulation changed from last year. Shot sizes for lead and nontoxic shot are now inclusive for all sizes from #4-#8. This replaces the individual listing of legal shot sizes. Turkeys were plentiful in Iowa at the time of European settlement. By the early 1900’s, unrestricted market hunting, uncontrolled subsistence hunting, and drastic reductions in habitat had eliminated wild turkeys in Iowa. For many years, the thunderous gobbles of the wild turkey were absent from Iowa’s woodlands and forests. This silence was broken in 1966 when the Iowa Conservation Commission, now the Department of Natural Resources, initiated a program to return the wild turkey to Iowa. Eastern wild turkeys were released at several sites across the state, with the first release occurring in Lee County, Iowa. Since these early days, turkey populations have expanded across 95 percent of the remnant timber stands in the state. Restoration efforts ended in 2001 with the last release in Linn County. The first spring turkey hunting season in Iowa occurred in 1974. The first fall turkey hunting season in Iowa began in 1981. Today, a resident of Iowa may purchase two spring turkey hunting licenses and two fall turkey hunting licenses. The sale of these licenses, in addition to the sale of fishing and trapping licenses, pays for the management of wildlife and natural resources throughout Iowa.