Last spring, hunters took home 4,677 bearded wild turkeys, topping the previous spring turkey season record of 4,649 birds. The 2006 tally also includes 532 birds taken during the special youth turkey-hunting season. Hunters also fared well during the fall of 2005, with a harvest of 991 birds.

Each year, some 14,000 hunters purchase spring turkey licenses in Vermont. Again, spring weather plays a significant role in their harvest. Despite enduring some wet weather during the past spring hunting season, success rates were rather high -- pushing 26 percent -- as hunters set the harvest record.

“We had a period of poor weather in May, including nearly two straight weeks of rain,” Blodgett said. “That Vermont turkey hunters could still produce a record season under such challenging hunting conditions not only speaks well of Vermont’s robust turkey population, but also to the tenacity and skill of its hunters. Who knows what the record may have been without all that bad weather?”

Adult toms comprised about 52 percent of the harvest in Vermont. Jakes made up the remaining 48 percent. As a result, Vermont hunters may see a slight swing toward more adult birds this spring.

Counties with the highest harvest rates last spring were Rutland, Addison and Windsor. These counties have a unique blend of farm and forestlands that attracts and holds turkeys. Within these counties, hunters can look within the southern section of the Green Mountain National Forest along Route 7 between Wallingford and Manchester, the Blueberry Hill Wildlife Management Area (WMA) along Route 4 west of Rutland, the central section of the Green Mountain National Forest along Route 100 between Stockbridge and Granville, and the Ottauquechee WMA along Route 4 west of Bridgewater.

For more information on turkey hunting seasons and licensing, call the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department at (802) 241-3700, or you can visit the department’s Web site at VTFishAndWildlife.com.

For lodging and travel information, call the Vermont tourism department at 1-800-837-6668.

MAINE
Maine has one of the largest concentrations of wild turkeys in New England.

According to information provided by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIFW), the state’s turkey population is between 40,000 and 60,000 birds. The core of Maine’s turkey population is in the southern and south-central parts of the state, with the heaviest concentrations of birds in the agricultural and old-field habitats along the Interstate Route 95 corridor. But the birds are expanding north and east through natural dispersal and the department’s effective trap-and-transfer program.

Over the past four years, hunter interest and participation in turkey hunting has grown each year. In the fall archery season, nearly 3,000 hunters purchased licenses and registered a harvest of 157 birds. The autumn archery success rate of hunters is low, but the spring season boasts much more hunter-friendly results.

The 2006 spring season was the first year that hunters did not need to enter a lottery in order to hunt wild turkeys. Bird numbers are such that everyone now has a chance to harvest a spring gobbler.

Maine’s spring season consists of two overlapping three-week sessions. This two-season concept was instituted to allow greater participation in spring turkey hunting and to keep the sport safe by limiting the number of hunters in the field. Last spring, 18,845 hunters purchased licenses and harvested 5,603 birds.