Accomack and Northampton report increase in turkeys harvested

Both Accomack and Northampton County’s reported an increase in the number of turkey’s harvested during the spring season.

According to the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources 2024 Virginia Spring Wild Turkey Harvest data, Accomack hunters reported 285 turkeys bagged this spring, an increase of 28 from 2023.

Northampton County reported 74, an increase of six over the previous year.

21,988 turkeys were harvested during the 2024 spring turkey season in Virginia. While this represents a 10% decrease from the record harvest in 2023, this remains one of the highest spring turkey harvests in Virginia history. Ryan Brown, DWR Executive Director, stated “The continued high harvests over the last several years is a great sign for the future for Virginia’s hunters and wildlife enthusiasts. Further, numerous reports of hens with young poults already this spring provide hope that 2024 will be a year of strong productivity in Virginia’s wild turkey population.

DWR biologists anticipated the spring turkey harvest would decrease during the 2024 season for two primary reasons: back-to-back years of record harvests are not typical for the wild turkey, and brood survey results in 2022 were below average. The Department’s annual brood survey measures productivity and recruitment within Virginia’s turkey population. In 2022, the survey indicated below average recruitment of turkey poults across much of the state. These birds would be 2 years old this season, the age group that tends to make up the majority of the annual spring gobbler harvest. With fewer 2-year-old birds on the landscape, a drop in harvest was expected.