Great wkd scouting in PA

[jakebird]

Got out this wkd to do some early scouting in my hunting areas, despite the passage of a cold front and moderate rain for much of the day saturday. Heard a few early on the roost, typical locations of previous years. Observed a ton of birds in the fields due to the wet weather. Definitely some breeding going on. Saw a lot of small breeding flocks of one or two toms and a handful of hens, but also saw some large flocks of mixed birds, as many as thirty or more, so i'm not too worried about it being "all over" before our season opens at the end of april. Plenty of jakes around, but i actually saw more mature birds than jakes, and our official count for the wkd was over a hundred turkeys and more than fifty deer in a few sq mile area, so prospects look really good. Saddest thing i saw was a HUGE dead gobbler along rt 322. Long thick beard and curved hooks, i slowed almost to a stop, till the wife yelled at me. Almost made me sick to see such a fine bird hit on the highway.

[Cutt]

Sounded like a good weekend, that's a lot of birds and deer for 1 sq. mile. I know in our area in PA, seeing 20-30 birds and maybe a dozen deer per square mile would be good here? Couldn't even begin to imagine seeing them kind of deer numbers, ours have dropped way off in this area.

Speaking of deer, I decided to pull my last stand out, that I've been putting off since Fall. Made it a point to get in the woods at roost time, and enjoy my 30 min plus walk to my stand. On my walk in I heard gobbling in a couple different roost areas, I listened a bit and went on my way and removed my stand. It was nice hearing my first birds of the Spring on the roost, but what I really didn't care for, was hearing a Tom gobbling non stop on my way out? This was around 9:00 am or so, and was around the first roost area where I heard them. I heard this bird gobbling non stop for a good 15minutes or so as I was walking to my truck, not sure how long he carried on after getting out of hearing distance? But didn't care to hear one acting like that already with a month to go?

[Ol'Mossy]

 Went out this morning, it was pretty cold, didn't dress for it so no walking for me. Went to an area  where I saw two longbeards last week and heard no gobbling at all. It was pretty windy, so I took a ride to other areas and heard nothing. I did see 7 deer in my travels and stopped at a place where my buddy saw 3 nice longbeards. I was sitting there enjoying the scenery when I was leaving and saw a longbeard walking across the powerline. I noticed one of his tail feathers was hanging down, I figured he either got into a fight or is just molting?

[jakebird]

What part of the state are you in, Cutt? This was s.central. Not all in one sq mile but in a relatively small area of a few miles where i hace access to a few private properties and quite a bit of public land. Actually just noticed they put up a deer fence in a new timber cut, first fence i've ever seen in this section of the state forest. Herd reduction swept this arera fairly hard, but theyve really bounced back hard just in the last couple of years. Turkeys are absolutely booming, too.

[Ol'Mossy]

I'm curious as what part of 322 you saw that dead gobbler, I travel 322 all the time to work.

[Cutt]

What part of the state are you in, Cutt? This was s.central. Not all in one sq mile but in a relatively small area of a few miles where i hace access to a few private properties and quite a bit of public land. Actually just noticed they put up a deer fence in a new timber cut, first fence i've ever seen in this section of the state forest. Herd reduction swept this arera fairly hard, but theyve really bounced back hard just in the last couple of years. Turkeys are absolutely booming, too.

I'm in Beaver County right along the Ohio Line, kind of a dead spot for deer numbers anymore? You can drive 40 miles or so, South or North and numbers increase.