I’m sure that fall turkey hunting is far from our thoughts right now, especially as we find ourselves in the middle of a heatwave — but the fall season is not that far away.

The fall season is set to start on Oct. 31, and either a bearded or unbearded bird may be taken. Seasons lengths vary; I do a lot of my turkey hunting in 4E, and our season ends Nov. 14, but in some of the surrounding management units, you can also hunt turkeys from Nov. 25-27. Check the digest that came with your hunting license or go online to be sure of closing dates where you plan to hunt.

Granted, my turkey scouting right now isn’t all that serious, and in fact, most of it at this point is just keeping an eye out when I’m traveling about; but even that can pay dividends when the season rolls around.

Several years ago, I spotted a good flock of birds just off a backwoods dirt road, and I saw those birds in the same general area several more times. I got permission from the landowner and took a nice bird on the opening day of the fall season. There’s no question that as the fall season moves closer, I get more serious about scouting and combine my turkey scouting with my fall archery hunting endeavors.

However, it still pays to keep a good eye out while driving down the road, and if my wife is driving, I can better scan those nooks and crannies that can easily be overlooked, but sometimes you don’t have to look all that hard. In the past few days alone, my wife and I have spotted a good number of turkeys with some close to or even crossing the road.

The day before I sat down to write this piece, we had to stop the vehicle to allow four hens and eight youngsters to walk across in front of us. The same thing happened with the same bunch 20 minutes later when we came back up the hill, and they were on their way back to a roosting site, I suspect. The following day, a few miles down the road I spotted four more good sized hens only 30 yards from the road; these kinds of sightings have been off and on all spring and summer.

While you are in the business of looking out for turkeys, you may also be interested in knowing that the Pennsylvania Game Commission is looking to Pennsylvanians to help measure annual turkey reproduction through its Wild Turkey Sighting Survey. The survey runs from July 1 to Aug. 31. The reports you turn in will help the agency better understand the influence of weather and other factors that might limit turkeys.

If you want to help out, you can report your summer sightings by going to the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s mobile app or go to the agency’s website, http://www.pgc.pa.gov. The public is encouraged to report the number of turkeys spotted along with the general location, date, and contact information in case biologists have any questions. This data will help determine total productivity and allow the commission to compare long term reproductive success.

I’m sure I don’t have to mention to folks in these parts how important it is to keep an eye out for deer when traveling, but the same may be true for turkeys. By the way, you may want to add bears to that list; my granddaughter and her husband had a 200-pounder run across the road hardly a mile from the intersection at the Muncy Dunkin.