Greene County still has ample supply of turkeys
Spring gobbler season is under way in ideal conditions Saturday. However, Western Greene County Wildlife Conservation Officer Rod Burns is not bubbling with enthusiasm when he discusses this year’s spring gobbler prospects, but, on the other hand, he is not exactly pessimistic.
“We don’t have what we used to population-wise, but we still have a lot of turkeys,” Burns said.
Last Thursday he said, “I had been seeing them pretty regularly as I traveled about, but I haven’t seen or heard any for the past couple of days. I’m not seeing quite as many hens running around by themselves for I believe they are starting to nest.”
Greene County was the hot spot for turkey hunting a decade ago but Burns feels that northern Fayette County and Washington County have had better reproduction the past couple of years than there has been in Greene County.
He said, “Hunting doesn’t hurt the turkey population. It’s the wet spring weather that hurts the population. A lot of poults die right after they hatch when it is wet and cold. We don’t get enough fall turkey hunters any more to have any real effect on the population.”
I didn’t see a single flock on a 100-mile drive through Greene County last week. Burns said it was probably because of the time of day. He said the best time of day to spot them in the fields is early in the morning. If it’s windy they seldom feed in the fields, but when its wet, it is possible to spot them in the fields at any time of day.
“We definitely don’t have what we used to have, but there are still a lot of birds out there,” Burns said. “It will just be more challenging.”
In discussing his observations, Burns said, “I’m not sure how many jakes there are. I saw proof of very littler reproduction here in Greene County last summer. The rain did them in. It was a bad reproduction year.
“That doesn’t mean there aren’t ample numbers of birds. There are birds out there; I just wonder what year-class they are. Three-year-olds are tough to get, two-year-olds can be tough also, and jakes can be kind of crazy.
“Hunting gobblers doesn’t have any impact on the population. I’m not even concerned that some hunters will be able to kill two gobblers this year for the first time.”
Burns was confident that last week’s mentored youth turkey hunt didn’t hurt the population.
“I must have driven 80 miles that morning and only saw two cars, never got to talk to a hunter,” Burns said. “There was very little pressure. It was pretty quiet.”
Burns said that he saw some cars parked in popular turkey hunting areas but couldn’t be sure if they were out scouting or hunting morel mushrooms, which are starting to show up.
Burns then said, “What concerns me is hunting accidents. Everybody has to wear an orange hat when moving about and only taking if off after they sit down and begin calling.
“I hunt turkeys myself. It’s not worth the risk of not wearing an orange hat when moving.
“I would estimate that over 50 percent of the hunters out there don’t wear orange when walking about. You would think the word would get out after so many people are fined each year for moving without wearing orange.
“The fine for not wearing orange can range from $75 to $200. The worst fine you can get is if you get yourself shot.”
He urges all hunters to positively identify their target, noting, “If there are too many accidents, they will start making turkey hunters wear orange full time. I won’t even stand up without my orange hat on.
“A lot of hunters sneak in when they believe they hear turkeys. A couple of years ago I saw a guy sneaking through the woods heading toward some hunters that were calling birds, and he was shaking a gobbler tube!
“Hunters have to be aware that shotguns are a lot more lethal now. The range for killing a turkey has been greatly extended with the heavy magnums, and they are now killing turkeys at 50 yards, where 35 yards used to be the maximum effective range.”
BOBTOWN BRUIN: A bear was trapped near Bobtown recently.
It was only the second bear trapped in Greene County in 10 years.
The male bruin started out raiding bird feeders and stayed around after people started feeding it, and it then wore out its welcome, becoming a pest.
The Game Commission became concerned and removed him after the recent incident where black bear attacked a family in Tennessee, killing a young girl.
Last summer the same pesky bear was trapped in Fayette County and transported to a remote area near the Fayette-Somerset County border.
At that time the bear weighed 160 pounds.
Since then he traveled all the way to Greene County, which meant that he is also a good swimmer, swimming across the Youghiogheny and Monongahela rivers in just a few months time and gaining an additional 100 pounds in the process, as he weighed 260 pounds when caught in Bobtown.
“The way he’s growing, he’ll probably weigh 350 pounds by this fall,” Burns said. “I think he just wanders. He probably would have left the area when breeding season came.”
It was Burns’ first actual encounter with a bear since he was assigned to Greene County. “People have called about bears, and I have seen tracks before,” he said.
Rod Schoener is the Herald-Standard outdoors editor.