Working for the state forest, I got to see a lot of turkeys this year prior to and during our Maryland season. A couple things I noticed that seemed different this year:

1. 99% of birds I saw fell into two categories. Mini jakes (beards no more then 1-2 inches, many just had nubs and there were several birds that I knew 100% were jakes and appeared to have no beard at all) or big birds (beards 8 inches+). Of the 200-300 birds I saw prior to and during the season, I can't remember even a single bird that was between those two sizes. I thought that was really odd. Could be a local genetics thing I guess.

2. The birds were quiet. They would sometimes give a couple "courtesy gobbles" right before flydown, but that was it. While both of the birds I shot were exceptions to this, most of the birds I saw this year, or heard local hunting stories about, were very quiet.

3. I think the late winters really threw everything out of whack. I can remember a single week of work mid-april right when our season was coming in. Monday = Saw a flock of 30+ birds, suggesting they were still flocking up. Tuesday = Spooked a hen off a nest of six eggs. Wednesday = Three inches of snow. Thursday = Four different sightings of single hens, and two flocks of roughly 10 birds each. I honestly couldn't really tell between March-May what the birds were doing. I have no idea when birds started gobbling. I have know idea when flocks were starting to break up. I have no idea when hens started laying. It was just a really odd year, and I blame the cold for it.