Unusual Place for Turkeys

RIStrutStopper · 04-22-2004, 10:00 PM

I live on Aquidneck Island in Rhode Island, and its not exactly known for its booming turkey population. Newport County does have two towns where turkey hunting is allowed, but not on this island. A friend told me that he had seen two turkeys off the main drag further north on the island, and two more a week later on a road which runs along Narragansett Bay. A post on a local hunting board also mentioned spotting turkeys on the island. Tonight I was on my way to Wallyworld to pick up my license and turkey tags prior to next Thursday's season opener, when my wife suggested that we take a drive along the bay to see if we could spot turkeys or possibly some deer. I turned off the main drag and took a side street that boarders the Navy Base in Newport, and noticed this look of shock in my wifes face. I turned to see two jakes up close and personal behind a chain link fence on the Navy base. I had my new digital camera in the car and proceeded to snap away. In case anybody cares to look, I uploaded two pics, and here are the links:

http://img56.photobucket.com/albums/...r/378cd2cd.jpg
http://img56.photobucket.com/albums/...r/IMG_0023.jpg

kevin1 · 04-23-2004, 05:46 AM

Has anyone approached your F&G dept. about releasing some birds there ? Is your habitat marginal for turkeys ? If they were to let some go there and temporarily limit hunting them to a set number of adult birds for a few years you could have a real "honey hole" going there .

PABowhntr · 04-23-2004, 06:05 AM

That is great. Turkeys have been "invading" throughout my state for the past twenty years or so (guesstimate). It seems they continue to adapt to new environments. This would seem to be the case in your area as well.

Doemasters · 04-23-2004, 03:48 PM

That's too cool. I got some footage of a tom in full sturt in the middle of a county highway. We had to stop the truck & let him & his lady-friend walk off the side of the road. I'm thinking about posting a short clip to let yall see that. His feet were actually on the yellow lines!

RIStrutStopper · 04-23-2004, 04:46 PM

Okay. This is getting personal. I came into work today, and guess who was inside the gate scratching and feeding... I couldnt believe it. I wanted to show off some of those pics to fellow turkey hunters at work, and they stole the show. Someone on a forum for local hunters thought they were hens, because of no beard or spurs, even though they look somewhat bigger than hens. I just took a drive by work a few minutes ago, and there they were. Again, I was able to get out of my car, and actually got within feet of these guys and was able to verify each has a TINY beard. One has bumps for spurs, and one has hardly any spurs at all. I'm pretty sure they are 1 year old Jakes.

Kevin1, the DEM did release birds in RI, and thats why we now have a huntable population. Last year they gave up the lottery system and you can now buy tags over the counter. My town wasnt an area where birds were released, but they are obviously spreading. Hunting on this Island isn't something that is done frequently. There are some farms, but its tough to get permission to hunt. Bow hunting is all you're gonna be able to do, if you can get permission at all. You should see some of the bruiser bucks on the Navy property here. There is a 12 point big boy thats easily over 200 lbs. There are some others that are pretty close to his size. We spotted about 12 deer yesterday just after taking those pics, all on Navy property, and most of them looked to be yearlings. I hope they open that property up for bow hunting to thin the herd, I'll be first in line. I'm not holding my breath tho, since 9/11 the Navy doesn't even allow us to SCUBA dive for lobsters from the base any longer.

Paul