The Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR) announced a harvest of 20,541 turkeys during the 2021 spring turkey season. This is the second highest harvest on record exceeded only by the 20,580 birds taken in 2015, and nearly equal to the 2020 harvest of 20,525 birds.
Ryan Brown, DWR Executive Director, said “Virginia’s abundant turkey population continues to offer exceptional opportunities for spring turkey hunters to pursue this challenging quarry and enjoy the spring woods with family and friends.”
Bedford County once again came in as the top county for spring harvest (Table 1). Southampton followed close behind and Franklin County was third highest. These three counties have consistently ranked in the top five for total harvest due to their high turkey populations and amount of suitable turkey habitat. A few new counties did enter the top 10 this year, with Caroline and Halifax making appearances at number 9 and 10, respectively.
Harvest on the 2021 Youth and Apprentice weekend, which included Easter this year, decreased 30% from 2020 for a total of 613 birds. In contrast, the opening weekend of the season was the highest two-day period of harvest throughout the season, totaling 4,588 birds or 22.3% of the total harvest.
Weather, annual reproduction, mast (mostly acorn) crops, and hunter effort all have impacts on annual fluctuations in turkey harvests. Several of these factors likely contributed to the high harvest for the 2021 season including fair weather conditions throughout most of the season and good production in 2019 (meaning plentiful two-year old birds on the landscape in 2021). While turkey production was lower than average in 2020, turkey populations across the state are still at or near record levels for many areas. Early brood reports from across the state this spring are encouraging with numerous photos and reports of young poults out and about with hens.
As in previous years, more birds were harvested East of the Blue Ridge (69%) than West of the Blue Ridge (31%). The eastern harvest was up approximately 2% from 2020 while the western harvest decreased by approximately 4%. Adult gobblers (those with a beard at least 7” in length) made up 91% of the total harvest, while juvenile gobblers known as “jakes” (those with a beard less than 7” in length) accounted for 8.7% of the harvest. Bearded hens made up only 0.3% of the annual harvest, which is similar to what has been recorded in previous years.
The majority of the spring turkey harvest took place on private lands (93.8%). Public land hunters (both federal and state) accounted for 6% of the total spring harvest, which was up slightly from 2020 (5.3%). A majority of the federal land harvest occurred on the George Washington-Jefferson National Forest where a total of 737 birds were taken, 11.5% higher than 2020 (661 birds).
