![]() ![]() They’re consequently totally protected until the fall hunt, when breeding is long over and the population is at its highest. The easily recognized, beardless females are the real key to each season’s reproduction. Their harvesting has little to no effect on our annual repopulation. And the reality is that a significant percentage of our toms are totally expendable since just one of them can fertilize numerous females. But that’s the only time toms can be called in - and they don’t fool easily. Some non-hunters are surprised that there’s a spring hunt during the breeding season. All who love the wild turkey would find that behavior disgusting. Only a meat hunter or poacher would ever even consider shooting a roosting wild turkey out of its tree or one feeding far out in a field. Killing a turkey any other way is unsporting and wastes one of the greatest game birds in the world. There’s only one right way to kill a tom - and that’s to call him in. The turkey hunter’s learning curve is steep. And on inexplainable days, male turkeys will reject some of the best calling imitations and strategies. A barely visible motion or just a patch of illuminated white skin can end a whole morning’s efforts. Their eyesight equals that of an eagle, and they tend to run off at the slightest hint of danger. For most turkey hunters, wild toms prove frustratingly elusive. Connecticut has 35,000, New Hampshire 40,000 Vermont 50,000 and Maine 60,000.īut all over New England, just as in the deer hunting and fishing worlds, a minority of sportsmen took the majority of toms. Little Rhode Island’s flock has grown to 3,000 birds. But happily, just about all of New England’s turkey population is thriving. Our forests now hold about 30,000 turkeys. You can’t do better than Worcester County, which has become the hub of turkey hunting in the Commonwealth. If you’re planning to turkey hunt around the state, note that last year Barnstable County harvested 144 toms, Berkshire 322, Bristol 22, Dukes 11, Essex 1,196, Franklin 423, Hampden 192, Hampshire 241, Middlesex 311, Norfolk 102 and Plymouth 240. With far more hunters working this year, though, we’re not likely to break the 2020 record. That was a remarkable 156 more turkeys than harvested here the previous year. Worcester County turkey hunters brought home an all-time-high 835 toms. ![]() ![]() ![]() Part of the 2020 record harvest, of course, was due to a dramatic increase in leisure time and hunter effort, thanks to so many closures caused by COVID-19. Considering that each tom averaged between 16-20 pounds, that well-managed, sustainable harvest amounts to several tons of delicious, healthy meat for hunters’ families. MassWildlife’s management of our wild turkey has been nothing short of wonderful. Last year, spring season turkey hunters harvested an amazing 3,310 toms, including 73 on youth day, when only qualified young hunters with mentors were allowed the advantage of hunting early. While turkey hunting may seem easy to those who have never tried it, the brutal fact is that hunter success runs only about 13%. I remember being surprised many decades ago watching my hunting partner dress out his bearded bird, only to find it was one of those rare females carrying eggs - and sporting male sexual characteristics. Once in a while, a female turkey gets shot by mistake. Hunters aren’t allowed to shoot females, which are the key to our turkey abundance. The seasonal bag limit is a generous two males, which this year can both be harvested on the same morning. Many hunters took Opening Day off, and they might show up late to work as turkey hunting ends each day at noon, and Massachusetts doesn’t yet provide weeklong workers with opportunities for Sunday hunting. While we can drive around rural, suburban, and even urban areas now and see wild turkeys, deceptively calling them in close for a shot is a skill that is usually outmatched by the male’s reluctance to succumb to incompetence. It’s precisely this brief and dramatic challenge that lures the perennially addicted turkey hunter. Only a fraction of them will bother to hunt in the fall, when the toms aren’t dramatically strutting and proving a great challenge to call in. During that time, the dominant sounds of early-morning birdsong in the forest will be occasionally punctuated by hunters’ imitative, hopeful clucks and hard-earned triumphant bangs.Ībout 25,000 hunters bought permits this year to try to call in a strutting tom. Our spring wild turkey season opened Monday and will run through Saturday, May 22. Those who study them carefully noticed their strutting began in mid-March. Their brains and hormonal systems are triggered annually by spring’s increasing hours of daylight. Driven by natural forces, wild turkeys are mating now. ![]()
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