New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff

Thankfully a turkey day.

Wednesday 02/22/2006

I ended up over on the coast the last couple of days assisting our turkey biologist, Ted Walski, in trying to catch some wild turkeys for a study just getting under way. There will be a UNH graduate student Angelic determining the habits and movements of two flocks of turkeys for a couple of years. Ted was called in to capture turkeys from two different flocks in order to put 15 radio collars on birds at two different sites. He captured 31 a week ago, but I was not in on that group.

Yesterday I was near the turkey study area and swung by to see if I could see any birds and happened upon Ted and the "turkey crew" as they attempted another capture. No luck yesterday afternoon. Three deer showed up and began to eat the bait around 3:30 pm and Ted had to shag them off. No turkeys came as dusk settled in.

We were back at the site at a little after 6:00 am this morning. By 7:00 nothing was happening so I decided to see if I could find the birds in the back yard of one of the houses in a nearby development where they have reportedly been feeding. Sure enough I spotted the birds crossing a street right in front of me headed for a lawn with about a dozen bird feeders hanging and more food scattered beneath them. The lack of snow has made it difficult the get turkeys on to our baited site and this major feeding area had them short stopped as well.

I eased out of my truck and slowly began to herd the 16 turkeys away from all the food and towards our bait site at least a couple hundred yards away. A couple of turkeys flew up to the roof. Not a good thing as I did not want to disturb the folks inside. Right behind the house was a chain link fence. Another obstacle to try to get the over and headed in the right direction for our bait. Lucky me. There was a sharp corner in the fence right behind the house and I was able to corner a half dozen birds there and got them to fly up over the fence. At least they were headed in the right direction and I was hoping, beyond reasonable hope, that the others would follow. It was a delicate balancing act to try to herd these wild birds in the right direction, yet not scare them and put them into hiding. I carefully backed away and went back to our rocket netting site.

We all patiently waited, 7:30 to 8:00 and then 8:00 was closing in on 8:30. We sat in our trucks out of sight and out of the way while Ted laid in his blind in the freezing morning air.

BOOM went the rocket net about 8:30. My prayers were answered. Ted had 11 turkeys flopping under the net as we raced in. One big hen found, or made, a hole in the middle of the net and escaped, but we had the rest. Ten.

We quickly untangled them from the net and headed to the Fish and Game Sandy Point facility to process them. Leg bands, wing streamers and tags and a radio collar around each turkey's neck were all installed in quick order. This easterly flock was fitted with a radio collar each and the hens were equipped with a white wing streamer and the jake a red one. Last week's hens got yellow and the toms had green streamers attached. By 10:30, 10 very healthy and spunky wild turkeys were ready for release. The flock included 9 hens and a jake. All in all a very rewarding day by noon. I had not captured turkeys in a while. I can't say I have ever herded a flock of turkeys to a capture site before. You never know if you don't try. Luck sure was with me today and I even outsmarted a whole flock of turkeys. Not a bad day at all.