I'm checking to see, if your home State has a yearly Turkey census program? In my home state of North Carolina, our biologist have been asking hunters to participate in a visual census survey program that runs from the 1st of July to the 31st of August, for many years now. This visual census gets feedback from hunters on turkeys spotted in categories that include gobblers/jakes, hens and hens with poults and unknown sightings. Each sighting is reported with numbers and by county. If you participate, the State will send you a personal yearly report (normally in September) via your e-mail and give you a detailed breakdown of numbers of each, by county and overall State numbers. They also give further breakdown of higher or lower poult numbers and overall health of each category. I hear many of you talking about declining numbers but it seems our numbers have been holding steady or increasing in past years. I have been participating for many years now and hope those numbers continue to go up.
I live in the Rutherford Co N.C., and our # are down bad, where we would see large flocks, a couple of years ago, you are lucky to see any birds now.
I am in Clarendon County, SC. Some spots are as good as they ever been or better and some have dropped significantly. It all depends on habitat and what the land owners/managers are doing.
Pennsylvania has a similar survey during the same timeframe, July 1st to August 31st.
Tennessee has launched a Wild Turkey Observation Survey Participants. It runs from June 1 until Aug 31. They have set up an online digital survey form with questions about your turkey sighting etc. They have always had a country area observation program, BUT this year is the first time they have had a public participants program to report turkey sightings.
WV has a spring Turkey survey
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As far as I am aware, New Mexico has no censusing program in place other than asking hunters how many turkeys they saw while they were hunting. That is a question asked in the mandatory online harvest report hunters are supposed to fill out each year. That is a pretty haphazard way of "guessing" trends in turkey numbers, though. In addition, it also presumes that hunters will divulge that information honestly since they are also reporting on the specific areas/units they are hunting in.
I am sure there is probably some in-house censusing within our Game and Fish Department done through observations of turkey numbers by our conservation officers while performing their regular patrolling duties,...or at least I would hope they would be doing that. I can't recall ever seeing any "formal" information presented by our G&F Department that would indicate any reliable censusing is ever done on our turkey populations (other than our very small and isolated Gould's turkey population). Over the years, our Department has pretty consistently estimated the statewide turkey numbers as being around 25,000 to 30,000 birds. That is pretty obviously just a "guesstimate" based on the long-term average rather than any sort of real censusing data.
One factor that could very well impact future turkey population numbers here is the fact that in the last decade, we have had numerous large forest fires that have altered a significant portion of our Merriam's turkey habitat. The two largest forest fires in this state's history are ongoing as we speak, and the three largest fires in our history have occurred in the last several years. I am hoping that our turkeys will adjust to the ongoing habitat changes we are seeing, but it is not looking good in my opinion. Personally, I will be very surprised if we do not see some significant hunting regulation changes in the next few years based on our current conditions.
As stated, WV has a spring survey. I think everyone should participate at least once.
It is fairly in-depth, it includes questions like: Private/Public land, county, numbers of gobblers heard, intencity of gobbling, weather, date, hens seen, Jake's seen, unknown turkey seen, hens heard, nests, other animals including several predators seen.
Before start of next season they will send you a nice booklet of all the data received plus data from previous years to compare. Also shows kills per county, per WMA, per region, along with gobbling and other data.
It is a useful tool to a guy that may want to travel instate to an area he/she hasn't hunted before. I used it once to travel to opposite corner of state to kill one of the best turkeys I have ever harvested.
Kansas has a mail carrier survey and they take data 3 times per year.
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Arkansas has a sighting/observations site or survey online through AGFC - I feel like these surveys are useful but need some kind of incentive for most folks to participate- just my opinion
Texas sends out survey forms after season. I don't get one every year, so I guess they so just send to a percentage of those with licenses. I do answer a few questions when reporting my kill so they get a little info from everyone (the 120 or so people) who kill an Eastern in Texas. They ask how many jakes were seen and if the population in your area appears to be uo, down or same.
Mississippi has had the Spring Gobbler Hunter Survey for close to 30 years (initiated in 1995). You are sent a booklet to track your hunting hours, observations, turkeys heard/seen, etc. In return you get a report summarizing your stats and comparing it to the statewide average. I've been participating over a decade and very much enjoy it. Link below takes you to the program webpage.
https://www.mdwfp.com/wildlife-hunting/turkey-program/spring-gobbler-hunter-survey/
The Spring Gobbler Hunter Survey data is used in the yearly publication of Mississippi's turkey report. Their turkey report contains tons of great data broken down by region. It is one of the best, most user-friendly turkey reports out there! Check out the 2021 turkey report here:
https://www.mdwfp.com/media/301521/21-turkey-report-spittin-drummin-web.pdf
I know Mississippi also does a summer brood survey during the months of June-August. Employees and collaborators (such as biologists and foresters with other agencies or in the private industry) participate.
In Mississippi, we have an online harvest report that we do which unfortunately is not mandatory. I heard this week that changes may be coming including making the opening date April 1, going to a 2 bird limit, and possibly closing down hunting at 1pm. I'm all for the first 2, but see no need in the 1pm cut off myself. I wish the MDWFP would focus on predator control more. I trap and predator hunt all I can but most turkey hunters dont.
Quote from: Cottonmouth on June 25, 2022, 11:32:54 PM
In Mississippi, we have an online harvest report that we do which unfortunately is not mandatory.
Harvest reporting has been mandatory in Mississippi since 2019.
Quote from: deerhunt1988 on June 26, 2022, 12:37:08 AM
Quote from: Cottonmouth on June 25, 2022, 11:32:54 PM
In Mississippi, we have an online harvest report that we do which unfortunately is not mandatory.
Harvest reporting has been mandatory in Mississippi since 2019.
I have participated in waterfowl surveys in New Jersey, but don't recall any Turkey surveys. They should start a program for sure.....
Maryland has one also. Last year was the first you could submit your observations electronically instead of by mail and it has a lot more participation.
I don't think Georgia does. At least not to my knowledge. The numbers must be down though. Season started 2 weeks later this year. They also changed our limit from 3 birds to 2. Can only take one per day. Previous home state of SC did send out random surveys a year or two ago if I remember correctly.
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Kentucky sends out a spring hunter survey and has a system for reporting poult sightings
Correction on Georgia. Recently received an email from DNR last week with census and turkey hunting survey. Glad they're collecting some data.
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