Winter Turkey Sighting Survey Ends March 9

The Pa. Game Commission is asking for the public’s help finding turkey flocks to trap for ongoing turkey projects.

Pennsylvanians are encouraged to report the location of any turkey flocks they see.

Information is being collected online at https://pgcdatacollection.pa.gov/TurkeyBroodSurvey through March 15.

Visitors to that webpage will be asked to provide the date of the sighting, the location, and the type of land (public, private or unknown) where birds are seen, among other things.

Game Commission crews will visit sites to assess them for the potential to trap turkeys. Turkeys will not be moved; they’ll simply be leg banded and released on site. In four Wildlife Management Units (WMUs) some also will be outfitted with GPS transmitters, then be released back on site, to be monitored over time.

Trapping turkeys during winter is part of the Game Commission’s ongoing population monitoring, and provides information for a large-scale turkey study, as well.

Just like the last four winters, the Game Commission will put leg bands on male turkeys statewide. Hunters who harvest one of those turkeys, or people who find one dead, are asked to report the band number by either calling toll-free or reporting it online.

“The data give us information on annual survival rates and annual spring harvest rates for our population model and provides the person reporting information on when and approximately where the turkey was banded,” said Mary Jo Casalena, the Game Commission’s turkey biologist.