Downeast Hunting Report: December 7, 2007
Even though Thanksgiving and days of turkey leftovers are a fading memory, turkeys continue to be a hot topic of conversation Downeast. As I write this, a flock of 19 wild turkeys are making their way across the blueberry ground outside my office window in Jonesboro, as they do almost every day at this time of year. The flock is a mixture of hens, poults (turkeys born last spring) and jakes (juvenile males born before last spring). The poults are almost as large as the hens now and it takes a pretty good look to see the size difference. Jakes are identifiable by their reddish heads and short beards, a tuft of feathers on the breast. The flock is also a mixture of banded and unbanded birds. The birds with metal bands on their legs are wild-born turkeys brought here in February of 2005 to establish a new flock in the area. After a rocky start, they had a great breeding season in 2007, resulting in the 10 or 12 unbanded birds that were born here.
Turkeys are thriving almost everywhere they are found and continue to pop up in new places. In Franklin, where turkeys have been a familiar presence for a few years, traffic was brought to a standstill recently as over 30 birds crossed Route 182 at 1:30 in the afternoon. Flocks have been seen repeatedly in Marshfield and in Machias near the high school in recent weeks. Turkeys have also been spotted in East Machias, a few in Lubec and, moving in from the north, a flock has been living and reproducing in Waite for the past two years. Although these pioneering turkeys are a good sign for turkey fans, there are still significant areas in Washington County with good habitat but no turkeys.
On a less optimistic note, a single turkey in Eastport has been hanging around homes and allowing people to approach him closely to give him food. This bird is almost certainly a captive-born bird that was released or escaped. It is illegal to possess “wild” turkeys in Maine without a propagation permit from the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and it is always illegal to release these birds into the wild. They carry genes that are not adapted to our environment and may contaminate the wild population if they meet other turkeys and breed. The risk of disease transmission from captive birds is also a real danger for wild flocks. Not all mail order hatcheries, feed stores and pet shops know it is illegal for them to sell turkeys in Maine and it is ultimately the responsibility of the buyer to know the law.
With the increased visibility of turkeys in the Machias area, people understandably want to know when this area will be open to hunting. The answer is at least a few years away. Wildlife Management District 27 includes the coastal region from Sullivan to Lubec as well as the entire Cobscook Bay region up to Calais. Wildlife Management District 28 includes the area from Sullivan north to Aurora and eastward to Meddybemps and East Machias. Check the department’s website (www.mefishwildlife.com) for exact district boundaries. Until turkeys are common across either of these districts, there will be a closed season on turkeys.
The Department is always interested to hear about other flocks of turkeys in the Downeast region. Call the Regional biologist’s office at 434-5927 with sightings of other flocks or reports of interesting behavior.
