Turkey study

[Will]

I was fortunate enough to be contacted by our state's biologists in reference to their project on Maryland's turkey population. They had interest in a parcel of land I hunt on the Eastern Shore, and since I am an avid turkey hunter, the club president thought best they contact me for questions concerning the flock and their movement. The project would lead to the biologists tagging two hens with transmitters, with one nesting near my stand location for deer. To this day, both remain tagged and appear to be surviving well. I thought I would share the results of some of their progress so far with this study. The link below is provided. For those not familiar with the state of Maryland, the western region is mountainous with the eastern region being flat thick woods with some open parcels. Some parts of the eastern counties are swampy while other have open hardwoods. I found this particularly interesting when you look at the difference in predation from owls.

https://dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/Documents/MD-wild-turkey-research-project-update_9_24.pdf           



https://dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/Documents/MD-wild-turkey-research-project-update_9_24.pdf

[Alabama556]

That is pretty cool.


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[Tom007]

I was fortunate enough to be contacted by our state's biologists in reference to their project on Maryland's turkey population. They had interest in a parcel of land I hunt on the Eastern Shore, and since I am an avid turkey hunter, the club president thought best they contact me for questions concerning the flock and their movement. The project would lead to the biologists tagging two hens with transmitters, with one nesting near my stand location for deer. To this day, both remain tagged and appear to be surviving well. I thought I would share the results of some of their progress so far with this study. The link below is provided. For those not familiar with the state of Maryland, the western region is mountainous with the eastern region being flat thick woods with some open parcels. Some parts of the eastern counties are swampy while other have open hardwoods. I found this particularly interesting when you look at the difference in predation from owls.

https://dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/Documents/MD-wild-turkey-research-project-update_9_24.pdf           



https://dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/Documents/MD-wild-turkey-research-project-update_9_24.pdf

Nice job.

[3bailey3]

Awesome!

[Gobble!]

Thank you for sharing this.

[CALLM2U]

Nice work!  Some of the poult survival rates coming out of these studies are extremely alarming. 

[silvestris]

Great Horned Owl.  I have only one highly suggestive experience with the owl (I do frequently hear them early and late in the day and frequently if out in the dark).  Several years ago I was boehunting for deer and came up on three gobbler carcasses.  All apparently were roosted in the same tree, and I surmised that was the work of the Great Horned Owl, a federal protected species.

[Zobo]

It's eye opening how much predation has affected the populations

[Will]

It's eye opening how much predation has affected the populations

I thought the same thing. I couldn't believe how much influence predation had on the population. Owls too, I have heard the same where owls are deadly on turkeys at night. There is a higher number of owl predation in the western portion versus the eastern and I wonder if this is because of more open mountainous terrain.

I have noticed, in my opinion, clear cutting has an impact. I have one area I hunt where clear cutting has slowed, and I the numbers of turkeys I see are lower than years we had a number of clear cuts throughout the property. In others parcels I hunt; we have substantial clear cuts around our properties and the numbers are high. I do believe cover is key to these birds' survival in the nesting stage.   

[JeffC]

Thanks Will, first for participating in this and second for posting, as a relative newbie to Eastern shore, 21 yrs, I have found it easier to go and hunt New Jersey, closer to where I live and better population of birds. I wish Maryland would go to a tag system like Jersey does, limit the number of people hunting per day. I know here in Cecil County the building that is going on has affected a lot of animals. Loss of land has condensed turkeys and predators into smaller areas.     

[KYTurkey07]

Thanks for sharing.

[paboxcall]

Excellent research, field work and data collection/analysis. I knew owls were hard on roosted turkeys, but to me conventional wisdom has been foxes/yotes, raccoons and skunks having a more significant predation impact.

Thanks for sharing the link.

[Paulmyr]

They just had a MD wildlife biologist involved with this study on the Wild Turkey Science Podcast talking about the state of the wild turkey in MD. Seems red fox  are pretty tough on nesting hens in the eastern part of the state.

[GobbleGitr]

That is excellent!

[Treerooster]

They just had a MD wildlife biologist involved with this study on the Wild Turkey Science Podcast talking about the state of the wild turkey in MD. Seems red fox  are pretty tough on nesting hens in the eastern part of the state.

Need more coyotes?    They are tough on red fox.