A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I were headed down some back roads on our way to the Bloomsburg area. I asked her to drive so I could concentrate on scanning the woods and fields for whatever wild game I can see.
We were only a few miles from home when we spotted a hen and her poults at the top of a steep bank, and there appeared to be four or five poults with the hen. That was my first sighting of young turkey poults this year, and I’m certainly hoping to spot some more young birds as we move into summer.
Unfortunately, young turkey poults are easy game for predators, and their main defense against predation is to hide. They will scatter and freeze at the hen’s warning call, and they will remain motionless until the hen gives the all-clear signal. In some cases, a hen may even feign an injury in order to lure any attackers away from her poults.
By the time poults reach about six weeks of age, they have become fairly strong fliers, and by fall, they are pretty much self-sufficient. Those new birds of the year can easily be identified by looking at the tail feathers; the middle tail feathers are longer than the other tail feathers.
Spotting new young turkey poults is not only something us turkey hunting enthusiasts do every spring, but it’s also something Game Commission biologists are very involved in each spring. Again this year, the Annual Pennsylvania Wild Turkey Sight Survey is underway from July 1 through August 31. The data that the commission is able to collect will allow the agency to help determine our total wild turkey productivity, and it will help to track population trends.
If you spot turkeys and poults, the Pennsylvania Game Commission is asking you to report those sightings, including how many poults and any adult turkeys you saw. Along with that, the commission would also like to know the county, township, and WMU where your sighting occurred. In addition to that information, you are also asked to drop a “pin” on a map pointing out the location of the sighting. While the Game Commission will study and possibly tag those birds, they will not be removed from where they were spotted. All of this information can be reported on the Game Commission website at https://pgcforms.pa.gov/TurkeySightingSurvey.
It is hoped, of course, that all of this information will help the commission better manage our wild turkey population.
Some of the information thus far has revealed that last year, 3.2 poults per hen were reported, and in 2022 and 2021, 3.1 poults per hen were also reported. Those are interesting figures since it is believed that two poults per hen is considered adequate to replace adult mortality.
As usual, the number of turkeys may be up in some areas of the state but down in other areas. There are several factors that can affect turkey numbers, including weather, loss of suitable habitat, and predation.
In the meantime, it appears that our turkey numbers are generally holding their own, and hopefully, we will have some good numbers of wild turkeys roaming the woods come this fall.
