If you see a brood of turkeys foraging for sunflower seeds at a backyard birdfeeder, you can log your observations with New Hampshire Fish and Game or Vermont Fish and Wildlife until Aug. 31. And after record-breaking rain in July, the turkey tally may be more important than ever.
“Cold, wet weather definitely plays a big part in the success of a brood,” said Chris Bernier, who manages the turkey count in Vermont. “It can actually affect the nest success in the extreme, but even more so it can affect the newborn poults. That first month of their life, they are incredibly susceptible to cold, wet weather.”
Poults, as young turkey are called, hatch from late May through June. The adult male “gobblers” make their own way while the hens incubate the eggs and raise the young. Some hens foster their young in small broods with just one mother, but as many as six hens can join together and share parenting responsibilities.
Poults are born with a light natal down that Bernier said is “not particularly water-resistant.” Without their “raincoats,” they succumb to adverse weather quickly.
That’s what makes the turkey count a critical way for fans of wildlife or science to contribute; it gives wildlife managers insight into “reproduction productivity” of turkeys each year, according to Bernier.
“It’s a citizen science project. We turn to the public and utilize the public’s interest and enthusiasm for wildlife to produce simple datasets for us,” he said.
Turkey spotters can log their counts online through their state agency’s website.
Weather is not the only variable that determines whether poults will survive their first weeks of life; Bernier said habitat availability and predation also impact young poults.
“Hens lay 10 to 12 eggs. … If you still have five or six of those poults that are alive, you’re doing well,” Bernier said.
And numbers aren’t everything. Size matters too for the young birds, because it shows how well they’re faring.
“Half the size? Three-quarters the size of the adults? They should be at least that size,” said Allison Keating, a biologist at New Hampshire Fish and Game. She said that sometimes, when a hen loses its first nest, it will hatch a second, smaller nest. Born later, those poults are more petite and struggle to survive the season.
Two months in, Keating says New Hampshire’s count indicates that broods are healthy this year. Vermont’s count spans only two months, July and August.
“The number and size of the young in the month of August is a really good indication of the breeding season,” Keating said. “The turkeys that have hatched are bigger and are easier for people to see out in the field.”
A healthy turkey population has benefits all the way up the food chain.
“Everything likes to eat turkeys. People do like to hunt them, but there are also a lot of other wildlife species that will prey on them,” Keating said.
Wildcats eat the adults while owls, snakes and raccoons prey on the eggs or chicks. As long as hunting is monitored, they are also a sustainable source of protein for people.
Keating said that in centuries past, over-hunting drove wild turkeys to extinction. They went extinct in Vermont and New Hampshire during the 19th century.
“There were no hunting rules or regulations at that time, so they were over-harvested in the 1800s to the point that there were no turkeys left in the state,” Keating said. “When settlers arrived, they began to take a heavy toll on the native birds. In the late 1960s and 1970s, both Vermont and New Hampshire reintroduced wild turkeys. New Hampshire Fish and Game trapped them in New York state and released them farther east.
“That initial population started to grow; up until 1995 they were trapping and transporting birds around the state,” Keating said. “Forty-something years later, we have a population of 45,000 statewide.”
In Vermont, Bernier said that the population has also reached at least 45,000, although it fluctuates up from there.
Now, with turkeys abundant in the region, both agencies allow for limited spring and fall hunting seasons. Bernier said the results of the survey may factor into how the department “tweaks” hunting policies.
“We never expected that they would occupy the entire state,” he said. “They far exceeded our expectations.”
To log your observations with Vermont Fish and Wildlife, visit https://anrweb.vt.gov/FWD/FW/TurkeyBroodSurvey.aspx or download the Vermont Outdoors app. To log your observations with New Hampshire Fish and Game, visit https://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/surveys/turkeybrood.html.
Claire Potter is a Report for America corps member. She can be reached at cpotter@vnews.com or 603-727- 3242.