Hope for the Future( Maybe I Spoke too soon )

[zelmo1]

I hope the poult sightings are a good sign, seen 2 groups already. That along with the jake encounters have me hopeful for the future. Besides the whole " not gobbling thing, " I am more hopeful now than in the past few years. I hope the trend continues. Last year there were few poults sighted, this year so far there are more. I think the mortality rate is going up, but if more broods are hatched, the more we should see. It is time to start actively thinning out the nest raiders and turke predators. Good luck to all and have a great summer. Z

[Tom007]

I hope the poult sightings are a good sign, seen 2 groups already. That along with the jake encounters have me hopeful for the future. Besides the whole " not gobbling thing, " I am more hopeful now than in the past few years. I hope the trend continues. Last year there were few poults sighted, this year so far there are more. I think the mortality rate is going up, but if more broods are hatched, the more we should see. It is time to start actively thinning out the nest raiders and turke predators. Good luck to all and have a great summer. Z

Amen brother, good news!

[Ranman]

Will be scouting for poults this coming weekend. We also saw a lot of jakes this spring in south MS..

[Muzzy61]

I pass several fields on my way to and from work each day and I've seen more hens with poults this year than I can ever remember.

[Greg Massey]

I agree. I did see several Jakes and hens during the season. So hopefully we will have a good hatch.

I have to say I did see several 2 year old gobblers this past season that wouldn't cooperate.

[bbcoach]

Here in NC, our Wildlife Biologists send out an Online Turkey Sighting Survey to our Sportsmans License holders, that starts the First of July and ends the 31st of August.  This survey allows us the opportunity to put eyes on hens with poults numbers, hens with no poults and male birds.  These numbers are tallied by county and total sightings throughout the State and put on the DNR website for anyone to see.   

[OJR]

I'm not making a big dent but 2 Coyote and 4 coons so far.

[nativeks]

Serious flooding here. Its like 2019 all over again. The lake is 27 ft high and rivers and creeks feeding it experienced moderate flooding so a lot of nests got lost in riparian areas this year. Go 100 miles west and they are dry. Go figure.

Towards the end of the season I did get a picture of a coyote carrying a dead turkey in its mouth.

[Dougas]

On my evening walk yesterday evening, I saw 2 hens with 5 poults and 11 jakes. On of the jakes had 2 beards about 4" long. These poults were pretty big too.

[10th Legionaire]

The country south of me has a Facebook "chatter" group and I have seen a couple posts of hens with polts the last week or so. I personally haven't seen any but I've only been out of my neighborhood once in the last week.

[zelmo1]

Scouted the last 2 days, all times of the day, and saw 4 poults total. Same spots I saw 40ish 2 weeks ago. 3/1 and 1/1 out of 8 hens spotted. Looking grim. But I did also see 4 single Tom's and they were all strutting. 3 were all alone and the last one had 3 hens he was strutting for. It has been a really weird year.  Z

[TrackeySauresRex]

Scouted the last 2 days, all times of the day, and saw 4 poults total. Same spots I saw 40ish 2 weeks ago. 3/1 and 1/1 out of 8 hens spotted. Looking grim. But I did also see 4 single Tom's and they were all strutting. 3 were all alone and the last one had 3 hens he was strutting for. It has been a really weird year.  Z

Nice you can get the off season scouting in Z. Nj had a late season spring rain. There are birds close to home and I haven't seen any poults. I did see a smokey grey hen the other day. The grass was a little high and there could have been good cover for them.

I'm hoping we had a decent hatch with the decent conditions we had. However, I didn't see a lot of hens here.

[Happy]

Ourr yearly rainfall average is around 24.5 inches, and we are already at 29 and some change for the year. I suspect  our nesting success is gonna be trashed. Raining again here today and not supposed to clear out till Friday.

[Tom007]

If (cold) rain severely affects poult survival, the whole Northeast  population will be screwed for sure with the rain we have had and still are encountering since early May. I'm not to optimistic about the 2027 season, as the young Tom's we are possibly gonna lose this year will hurt the 2 year old flock for 2027? This on-slaughter of rain couldn't have come at a worse time!

[zelmo1]

3 poults sighted where I saw 40 plus a couple weeks ago.The 3 hens are always there, they had 12-15 poults 18 days ago. No sightings of any poults or the other hens in the area. It looked good initially. I have seen hawks and owls in the area as well as coyotes. The poults are big enough to fly now so hopefully that will help. I was hopeful when I saw the nest raiders didn't do as much damage as in past years, but I guess the predator numbers are getting too high. The 6.5 creedmore is begging to go out so I will be rezeroing it this week. Good luck to everyone. Z