Today was no different. All that seems to come into our bait/trap are long beards and Jakes. Today these 13 Jakes came out behind me but worked their way into the trap field. They worked into the bait and maybe could have got 7 or 8 of them. They moved off to the right of the bait pile in 2 little groups. Then their heads came up and looked towards the lower left corner of the field. I looked and seen a single long beard come into the field. When I looked back at the Jakes they got together and trotted towards the long beard. When they got about 50 yards from the LB he tucked feathers and ran back into the woods. Then the Jakes stopped and started to feed. They then headed back up into the bait area and hung for about 5 minutes and then headed into a bottom at the bottom of the field. They hung there till 1130 when we had to quit due to fire conditions would not allow us to set off the charges for the net.

So far we have only trapped/collared 3 hens with transmitters.

After that we headed out and stocked the trout streams for the first time this year.

Sorry for quality of pics, taken with I-phone.
















Earl

Hmmmm I know where that field is!!!! LOL..might have a lot of that this year with the amount of jakes, it might keep the longbeards a little on edge.

I got the call today to come in the morning to help trap some birds with y'all, but I have to work tonight and tomorrow night. Will be back out this week listening.

Nice day. Lots of fun in that creek this weekend.

1 longbeard has no chance but it seems that 2 longbeards are a match for any number of jakes IME. I take that back somewhat, I have seen several single LBs that groups of jakes gave way to, even groups of LBs gave way to. The longer you hunt these birds the more (and quicker) population dynamics are apparent to you.

Interesting. Neat to watch a dynamic in nature.

Looks like next year is going to be great!

I was just thinking about how to get turkeys into an area I hunt in MD. They are still very scattered here. Does NWTF seed birds into new areas?

Vic

NWTF does not. The States were the ones doing the transplanting. Once the States realized that the pen raised turkey was not going to work the States started the trapping and transplanting the birds elsewhere back in the early 50's. A majority of trapping and transplanting of turkeys were done from then through the late 70's.

That was one of the discussions we had on the SAC (Stake Holder Advisory Committee) this past year for the VA Wild Turkey Management Plan over the next 10 years. The State will use that if feasible over the years as a management tool.


Earl

Earl, thought you might enjoy this.



This trap was in the early 1980's in order to get hens to radio collar for a UNH grad student.

We also caught four jakes that were relocated to a dairy farm about 10 miles away. Each jake had a brightly colored wing tag attached.

That following May gobbler season in a piece about half way between both sites I thought I had found gold when a group of thunderous toms was approaching my calling position. When the three came into view I recognized them immediately by their wing tags.

Since I had held each that previous winter they all got the release of life.

Interesting thread. Keep at it.

That is a great picture and story....

Lol who is trapping who. As you know things can get hectic trying to get to the birds, calming them down and making sure they do not get tangled in the net. We throw towels over them after netting to calm them. And then get them out to put them in the box to settle down more. Then apply the radio transmitter on them and then the release.

I thought I seen a radioed bird a couple years ago and passed on him. To our amazement non of our tagged birds over the last 4 years have been shot by a hunter. The folks one year that check on the radioed birds monitored a long beard that evaded hunters that were hunting the same area as the bird.

It is amazing what one can learn on the movement of turkeys through this research. Food, cover, weather what they are doing on certain days.


Hope to hear more of your trapping experiences. Thanks for sharing.


Earl

Come on Earl, get those hens in the net already!! LOL! Good luck. It seems like that should be easy on baited sites. Obviously not. Have you thought about hen decoys on the bait? Might help peek their interest. Just a thought.

We have thought about a decoy, but the biologist only wants the bait sight natural, no calling either. We got the bait out late this year. Once we seen they were on the corn and then set the boxes and had to wait a little more for them to get used to that it was only a couple weeks ago we started to set on the traps. By then we could see that their interests were going in other directions. just were not interested in the corn anymore. The other day I had 8 hens looking at the corn just on the edges the net would have been. Then they just pecked the ground and feed on away from the site. This has happened to others sitting on the bait sites. We started with 9 bait sites and ended up with 4. Next year we hope to start baiting in late Jan and sit on traps by mid Feb. Yesterday I did not sit on traps and was the last day for trapping. We had only 5 by mid Thursday. Have not heard how they did the rest of that day and Friday. We wanted at least 15 hens. But a 5 are better then none.


Earl

Earl those birds we caught were in the dead of winter and at a cooperative homeowners house who had about 25 coming to his bird feeder.

The picture doesn't tell the whole story. We were all in his warm living room watching the bait site.

The only other time I was in on a trap was next to an open pit trench silo at a local dairy farm hiding in a makeshift blind. Middle of winta....

wicked cold.

The turkey biologist said the same as you. Once they start to roam and natural foods become available they are much harder to trap.

Congrats on your five.

Now thats the way to do it. Funny story.

Earl