This is one of a rafter of eight Eastern Wild Turkeys that we spotted in a nearby patch of woods earlier in the month.
But, curiously, we haven’t seen one decent Turkey since the Fall Wild Turkey Hunting Season opened on September 20 here in Maine Wildlife Management District 26. Do these, the largest of North America’s upland game birds, sense something?
Under a new Maine law, Turkey hunters need not register, pay a registration fee, or tag the Turkeys that they harvest and transport in this Fall Season. However, as of now, the hunters will have to resume the usual registration and tagging process in the Spring Season, which starts for all hunters here on May 2, 2022.
Maine wildlife officials have said that the Spring registrations should provide enough data for them to monitor and manage the State’s burgeoning Turkey population. Nonetheless, the officials indicated that they may survey Fall hunters to get some informal data this year.
Leighton Archive Image
We don’t hunt, but we accept hunting as part of the culture that we adopted when we moved to rural Maine. We hear that hunting Turkeys in their habitats can be very challenging – the birds’ sight is three times better than that of humans, they have acute hearing that allows them to hear more distant and lower sounds than humans, and, when spooked, they’ll fly up to 60 miles per hour in explosive bursts.
(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on September 9, 2021, and March 17, 2018.)