That is definitely a mystery and another region I know of similar reports is south central TN. And the reason TWRA (Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency) funded their extensive turkey study. Areas that were once overflowing with turkey suddenly dry up in a 5-10 year stretch. Some of those counties are finally recovering now.
I live in a state where turkeys have been hunted as hard and as long as anywhere else in the country. With a March 15th opening date. And in the past 5 years every deer hunter has now turned into a turkey hunter further exacerbating the hunting pressure and harvest. This new breed simply deer hunts turkeys on food plots with the aid of bait and cellular cameras. I'm amazed and thrilled every time I see a longbeard post-season that survived the onslaught. After a near decade low number of turkeys just 2-3 years ago in my area, we are now sitting at near a decade high. All thanks to FINALLY getting some conducive weather during late spring and early summer. We also had disease run through in 2020 in which I sent off 3 turkey for testing and all 3 came back positive for Avian Pox and one for blackhead. It was an abnomaly wet summer as well and reproduction was as bad as I've ever witnessed. Not surprising, 2022 turkey season sucked and was one of the worst in a decade. But THANKFULLY, that summer we had one our best hatches in 20 years. And the yr prior (2021) had a decent hatch.. Followed by another decent hatch in 2023.. So we literally went from a decade low to a near decade high in just 2-3 years thanks to mother nature cooperating. Turkey populations are naturally cyclical and it seems a whole lot of people have forgot this, even some researchers.
I guess I say all that to say: If we were killing them before they bred and causing eggs to go unfertilized, Mississippi wouldn't have just had one of their best spring turkey seasons in a decade. And the same goes for a neighboring region in Alabama.
