Pennsylvania’s 2008 spring turkey hunters can look forward to good numbers of birds, with plenty of longbeards in the mix. Photo by Steve Carpenteri.

For the past several years, Pennsylvania’s wild turkey forecasts have merely been trends -- small dips or rises in a relatively stable population. On a statewide basis, it’s been a long while since we could honestly call the Quaker State’s wild turkey situation anything short of outstanding. We do have areas where the situation could be better, but steps are being taken to correct the problems.

HOW DO THINGS LOOK?
At worst, the outlook for the 2008 spring gobbler season is encouraging. Last year, conditions were generally good for recruitment of poults -- following a year when conditions maybe weren’t good, but weren’t bad, either. This spring, chances are promising of finding gobblers willing to respond to your calls.

Allowing for variability in weather conditions, which could change everything, the Pennsylvania Game & Fish prediction for the 2008 spring gobbler season is good to very good.

“In terms of the fall population, it was looking good because our recruitment from over the summer was pretty good,” said Mary Jo Casalena, the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s turkey biologist.

“Our summer brooding success was above average. In fact, it was better than the last three years.”

Casalena, besides being the Game Commission’s top gobbler biologist, is also an experienced and accomplished wild turkey hunter.

In 2006, summer recruitment was a little below average, but better than recruitment in the summer of 2005, and about the same as the summer before that. But these variations from average were not drastic. It’s been a few years since nesting conditions caused any serious change in the wild turkey population.

“The last two years have shown an increase in summer brooding success,” Casalena explained. “We had poor reproduction in 2003, but then 2004 was better. 2005 was all right -- a little bit below average. And 2006 and 2007 were about average.

“So if you look at 2006 and 2007 being about average, it means that the spring 2008 population will have about an average to a little bit above-average population of jakes and 2- year-old birds.”

The best situation for hunters is to have a good proportion of 2-year-old gobblers in the population. This age group tends to be more aggressive. They respond better to hunters’ calls than jakes and older gobblers. Jakes typically come in quietly, while 2- year-old gobblers do a lot of talking.

Older gobblers -- 3-year-olds for the most part, along with a few 4-year-old birds -- are educated and less likely to respond.

“They’ll gobble, but they’ll gobble pretty much just on the roost,” Casalena said.

We shouldn’t make too much fuss over the intelligence of birds with a brain about the size of a pencil eraser. However, they are capable of learning through experience. By the time they reach age 4, which relatively few gobblers do, they are very wary.

This spring, we do have a fair population of 3-year-old gobblers. These birds are real trophies. And any hunter who tags a 4-year-old gobbler has accomplished something rare.

The National Wild Turkey Federation has a system for recording exceptional wild turkeys. This system, explained in more detail on the NWTF Web site (at www.nwtf.org ), uses a formula that takes into account a gobbler’s weight, the length of its beard and the length of its spurs.