I don’t think Tina Turner was singing about wild turkeys when she sang that song a few years ago but love is in the air in Maine and the tom turkeys are doing dumb things – like the males of every species seem to do when they get a bit twitterpated.
Maine’s wild turkey population is estimated at around 20,000 birds. That’s double the population from just 6 years ago and to go along with it, turkey permits issued to hunters last year jumped up to 23,951 compared to 4,000 issued five years prior.
With the growing population of the wild turkeys and the fact that now we are headed into the mating season, watch out for them gobblers on the highways and byways of Maine and other states. In Maine there has already been 3 turkey-vehicle collisions this week and I don’t mean the turkeys from Massachussets either.
It’s not always easy to get a turkey to fly but they will and when they have hens on the brain, no telling when, where, and how they’ll fly. One report on the Maine Turnpike said that a driver ran into an in-flight turkey that went through his windshield, landed on the front seat and got up and waddled out the back door of the car – no doubt still looking for that hen.
There’s always good in everything and this is a sign that when the turkey season opens in May, them tomfoolery masters will being trying to convince one big tom it’s time to tango – if the mating season doesn’t come and go by then.
So keep your eyes out for turkeys in love and get practiced up on those turkey calls. You may need them in a few weeks.
Tom Remington
