Caught in yard

Goose that's another thing I've seen a pretty good increase in iver the last 5 years. Turkey have been in good numbers around here for many years. Probably 20 years or more but the numbers of them as of about 5 years ago have noticeably increased. They are a pest at the deer feeders for sure and such an aggravation. I didn't think of the turkey untill you said that but they are certainly more as of 5 years ago than any previous time I can ever remember in my 40 years. I just haven't noticed the dramatic rise and fall of the population, just a steady increase till about 3 years ago that it has since remained at.
As far as trends in sportsmen go, I've only ever noticed that in fishing. It's a free for all on the water bodies but I've not noticed the trends in the hunting world here I can only assume because the lands are private and hunter numbers are controlled by the land owners only allowing so many hunters per x amount of acres. Usually it's same hunters on same lease for decades at a time unless the land owner has allowed a lease jockey to come in and run the hunting. Usually more hunters and huge turnover rates on the ranches that's been given over to lease jockeys. What I know as a lease jockey is a guy whom has made a business or carrier out of leasing many lands and ranches that are scattered whom stocks then with hunters but is not part of the camp or lease himself. I can see the turnover rate enabling trends to develop among hunters in those instances.
Fortunately I only know of such and not apart of such. But back to the hunting trends of the hunters, the quail weren't in big numbers for more than 1 hunting season and no one hunted quail around these parts because for decades the quail hadn't been here in the numbers to hunt. During the quail season we did have so many quail we didn't hunt them because we were deer hunters primarily and not to interested in hunting quail. For those of us that used to hunt them many years ago, we were so delighted just to see them in abundance after so long that were had very little ambition to take to hunting them. Not 1 bird dog was purchase among all the camps and ranches that I know during this short time but there was talk about it and I'm certain it would have happened had the population been able to stay at those numbers for several seasons. Right before the second year/quail season the numbers tanked mysteriously almost within a month or 2 at most.
The bullfrogs did create a new item in which the guys took to hunting. They killed hundreds each year and now into their 3rd year and the numbers are still very strong for the frogs. Probably because my camp is only ones around close that are doing it and the rains have enabled the mature frogs to move around so easily when it floods and replentish whats been harvested. But the hunters have been taken care of the resource and not killing all the big ones at one particular spot and they only shoot the bigger frogs and let the younger ones live till next year. Plus all that beer that makes the hunters so agile and quite and sneaky really plays good for the frogs at night. For frog hunting starts taking place well into the evening lol. So far and despite the pressure from what talented hunters persue the frog, the frogs are still doing well after 3 plus years. No added pressure or trends were put towards quail or the rats other than the fish cranes. However we did make a hand at killing the Jackrabbits in the fields but there numbers are still good compared to before. They suffered same population explosion and similar fall as the other animals though despite us trying to control the numbers. However now that I think of it, the two species we did take to shooting that actually had a dramatic explosion in population didn't fall back to pre explosion numbers but remains higher or in the case of the frogs has seemingly thrived despite the added pressure. The 2 we didn't hunt, the rats and quail fell back to similar numbers as before. Turkey have not seen much added pressure and remain very high in numbers. Deer are doing very well and pigs are still doing well despite seemingly haven taken a small dip in population. But pigs I've seen fluctuate rapidly. Just when you think your goung to be over run with pigs in another years time, that coming year seems like less than the prior. Then the next year will be a seemingly decent increase in. Really figure the deer, pigs, Turkey, and frogs are at a nice steady sustainable population density for they have been doing well for a sustained amount of time and are coexisting well with the farms, water ways, hunters, and predator prey relationship. Snake population seems low compared to what I knew it as a kid. Coyote numbers are good but steady do to ranchers and hunters. Cat numbers are more than I can ever remember but still their isn't a plague of bobcat despite how well they are doing. Thier steady increase in number is predictable do to the swings of abundance of their prey but they in no way were responsible for decimating the populations so quickly. In the cats favor the rat swing then quail and jackrabbits coupled with the great deer, pig, and turkey sustained populations have allowed the cats to steadily increase without any seeing any decline the way the rats and quail went. I'm sure the bobcat are better at catching the jacks for coyote isn't fast enough to run down jacks and cats can ambush them in the jacks shady spots so easily.
I guess I can see trends in hunters but I can't contribute that to the dramatic decline of the animals either because the ones we have targeted were better after their sharp decline than the ones we didn't target. Seems like each year there are more and more guns in the woods targeting deer and taking more pigs and even turkey but these 3 populations are still seemingly increasing slowly. The deer population is growing but the amount of hunters in the woods play havoc on bucks and them able to get to 5 and 6 years old. What once was known for the amount of boon and crocket bucks harvested out of the county and made it famous for such bucks was its demise and now yeilds same or fewer boon and crockets bucks as a mediocre county. Still its reputation precedes it and it's known for what it once produced and hunters are paying crazy money and there are more hunters each year than the hear before in the county. Still the population is great and growing but antlers do not set atop many 5 and 6 year old majestic bucks for they are killed before before they can reach such magnificence in this area I hunt. I'm glad so many people are hunting and excersing that right and getting into the outdoors with gun and knife and bow in hand especially in the times we find ourselves in when the socialist in both parties have come so far as to deface this nation and trample all that we have ever stood for and were developed on. I'd much rather have my bretheren in the woods with me competing for deer and killing the best young bucks they can find rather than be alone in the woods with everyone else in the cities absorbing the communist ideology and attempted cue and take over. Probably shouldn't have rambled so much. I covered lot of water lol