Got up early this morning and went to our lease for some food plot and shooting lane maintenance. Arrived about 7 am and had multiple hen and poult sightings. I believe the total sightings was 6. Poult counts were between 6 and 8 in each sighting. Little ones are running around and in flight mode here in Eastern NC. Looks as if the future is Bright. Good Luck Little Fellas, hope to see you next Spring.
That's a really good sign for what's to come in the future. I have seen 8 to 10 hens by themselves, and not a poult to be found with any of the hens here in pa.
Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
Quote from: turkeymanjim on June 22, 2020, 11:58:48 AM
That's a really good sign for what's to come in the future. I have seen 8 to 10 hens by themselves, and not a poult to be found with any of the hens here in pa.
Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
Same here in Missouri
Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk
Quote from: turkeymanjim on June 22, 2020, 11:58:48 AM
That's a really good sign for what's to come in the future. I have seen 8 to 10 hens by themselves, and not a poult to be found with any of the hens here in pa.
Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
Jim, it maybe a little early in PA hopefully. I thought ours should be larger but most look to be about a month old. They did have their wing feathers and were flying but they were only about the size of a young quail. They didn't have those long legs and neck yet. You guys should be a couple weeks behind us. Hopefully your sightings will increase by the 4th. Good Luck!
That's really good to hear! In the western part of the state we had an absolute washout of a spring and I'm not seeing many at all.
Zero here in KS so far.
Seen 3 separate hens the other day. No poults between the 3. Eastern birds in Oklahoma.
Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk
Quote from: turkeymanjim on June 22, 2020, 11:58:48 AM
That's a really good sign for what's to come in the future. I have seen 8 to 10 hens by themselves, and not a poult to be found with any of the hens here in pa.
Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
While it`s always nice to see them, important to remember that they make a living out of NOT being seen.
My farming buddy's have seen some around here. Didn't say anything about the numbers just that they've seen some. That's awesome news for you guys
Unfortunately someone I know ran over a hen and nest last week cutting hay, total loss.
Had several poults run across my driveway on the way to town this morning. At least 6 but the hen was already across and I caught the tail end. Poults in June are pretty early around here (MI). I'm usually getting worried in July cause I haven't seen any and suddenly there they are mid to late July.
Quote from: bbcoach on June 22, 2020, 11:53:37 AM
Got up early this morning and went to our lease for some food plot and shooting lane maintenance. Arrived about 7 am and had multiple hen and poult sightings. I believe the total sightings was 6. Poult counts were between 6 and 8 in each sighting. Little ones are running around and in flight mode here in Eastern NC. Looks as if the future is Bright. Good Luck Little Fellas, hope to see you next Spring.
What county were you in?
I'm hopeful at our club because of all the hens we were seeing during the season this spring, but I
haven't see any poults so far.
Quote from: RS on June 23, 2020, 06:26:02 PM
Quote from: bbcoach on June 22, 2020, 11:53:37 AM
Got up early this morning and went to our lease for some food plot and shooting lane maintenance. Arrived about 7 am and had multiple hen and poult sightings. I believe the total sightings was 6. Poult counts were between 6 and 8 in each sighting. Little ones are running around and in flight mode here in Eastern NC. Looks as if the future is Bright. Good Luck Little Fellas, hope to see you next Spring.
What county were you in?
I'm hopeful at our club because of all the hens we were seeing during the season this spring, but I
haven't see any poults so far.
Part of our lease is in Jones and part in Craven. The poults I saw were all in Jones.
OK, the place I've been hunting is a ways north in Halifax County near the border with Nash and Edgecombe counties.
Here in Georgia on the Georgia Outdoor News turkey forum poult sighting report, there seems to be a larger number of poultless hens being spotted. Dr. Mike Chamberlain attributes the majority of this observation this time of year to lost nests/poults. Not good.
We start our 2020 Turkey Sighting Surveys tomorrow July 1st and report until August 31st. I've been a part of the surveys for the last 6-7 years. The NC State Wildlife Biologists send us a report card and we report our sightings for the months of July and August. They ask us to report numbers of gobblers, hens, hens with poults and unknown. They compile the results from though out the state and send out the results for each county sometime in September.
Quote from: bbcoach on June 30, 2020, 12:18:43 PM
We start our 2020 Turkey Sighting Surveys tomorrow July 1st and report until August 31st. I've been a part of the surveys for the last 6-7 years. The NC State Wildlife Biologists send us a report card and we report our sightings for the months of July and August. They ask us to report numbers of gobblers, hens, hens with poults and unknown. They compile the results from though out the state and send out the results for each county sometime in September.
Wish they'd do something like that here in Georgia. I'm honestly beginning to wonder if any of the turkey related decisions are in any way based on biological data or input from the biologists. I sure hope so.
They use rural mail carriers here.
Quote from: nativeks on July 01, 2020, 01:02:14 AM
They use rural mail carriers here.
If your not joking, then I don't see this as productive. One, how many actually participate and two, do they really care. IMO most states need to get the people that actually benefit from the sightings involved in the surveys. Most hunters will participate because they CARE about their hunting resource. This survey allows me to spend time afield this time of year, it provides me with additional scouting opportunities and I have learned so much about this bird being around them the entire year.
Been using them since 1962. Very productive. Volunteer basis. They drive set routes every day year after year. Many of them take very detailed notes. They are used for turkey, quail, and pheasant surveys.
Quote from: nativeks on July 01, 2020, 01:39:44 PM
Been using them since 1962. Very productive. Volunteer basis. They drive set routes every day year after year. Many of them take very detailed notes. They are used for turkey, quail, and pheasant surveys.
Sounds Great. I'll bet the rural carriers have some great stories to tell!
Great to hear you're seeing poults coach. Not so much where I am. I had 13 poults and 4 adult hens that visited behind the house over the summer last year. No so much this year. I've only seen 3 adult hens here recently and zero poults.
I went out to the big farm last weekend to retrieve the trail camera I left out since turkey season ended, just to see what survived. The camera and bear box had been pried off the tree and were gone. I called the guy who deer hunts out there and his 2 trail cameras were gone too. Mine was an older Cuddeback that wasn't great, but it worked. I hate a trespassing thief.
I've been participating in the survey for several years myself. I cover ~10 counties in my work, though usually only see turkeys in maybe half of them.
Jim