Re: 2017 - 2018 Va Fall Turkey Harvest Report
Good info, thanks for posting. According to the 2016 oak survey for fall there was a bumper crop here at Quantico. But those surveys are literally a pain in the neck. Laying on the ground and looking through binos and counting the acorns on the tree limbs from pre designated red and white trees each year, well us that do it go with a bottle of asprin
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But gettin back on track this last spring our poult to hen ration was 2.7. This last 2017 fall acorn crop was very spotty on the oaks but the beach which is not reported to the State was very good. It also seemed that a lot of the birds migrated off the base again since the mass was poor to fair. This happened a couple times before but in the past the hens seemed to come back to thier breeding and nesting areas here on base.
Our fall kill this year was only 9 birds, 2 hens, 2 jakes and 5 long beards. 5 of those were killed by hunters actually hunting turkeys and the other 4 were by deer hunters.
Now yesterday the wife and I drove around the Q and seen 46 birds. 24 Jakes (in fact one was a double beard) and the rest hens and Jenny's, NOT one long beard. That is a lot of Jakes that seemed to survive which means the 2016 bumper crop seemed to help although our hen poult ration was only 2.7, go figure.
The lack of LB sighting (from others) is somewhat concerning to me right now, but will wait another couple weeks and hopefully some of them may be returning.
But, in the last 3 spring seasons here we have had a couple record harvests.
2015 100 and all long beards, yes 0 Jakes.
2016 64 60 LB and 3 Jakes and 1 bearded hen.
2017 99 97 LB and 2 Jakes.
A few years ago we went from being able to take all 3 birds in the spring down to 2. May we need to go down to 1. Talking to the current biologist he thinks I am crazy and said, do I want him to get beat up by others by reducing the spring harvest. I don't think we have to since we have no real hard data on our turkey sexes ratio's. But with what I believe to be a very good jake population out there this year and hopefully a high percentage of them survive till next spring then we should start again establishing a good breeding stock.
The foresters on base are really taking a pro active approach here on base the last 3 years of timber cutting, thinning and burning of various areas that it should help our deer, quail and turkey population. In fact this last fall was the lowest deer kill on base 346. A steady decline from just 18 years when it was around 900.
Anyway I would be going out scouting today but the wife has me replacing the carpeting in the one guest bedroom. She said, some of the regulars that come here from out of State to hunt are tired of the old carpet. I suggested putting them up in one of the pull behind camper trailers we have out back, we can hook up the electric too them. So, here I am replacing carpet. LOL
Earl