Spring season bags 15,941 birds. Not bad.

By Don Dziedzina, May 28, 2012 at 6:51 pm
Spring season bags 15,941 birds. Not bad.

Hunters in Illinois harvested a preliminary statewide total of 15,941 wild turkeys during the 2012 Spring Turkey Season.  The 2012 total compares with the statewide turkey harvest of 15,121 in 2011.  Hunters took a state-record 16,605 turkeys during the spring season in 2006.

Hunters this spring took a preliminary total of 7,006 wild turkeys during all seasons in the South Zone, an increase from the harvest of 6,469 last year in the south.  The North Zone total of 8,935 wild turkeys compares with last year’s total of 8,652 in the north.  During the 2006 record year, harvests were 6,530 in the south and 10,075 in the north.  All results include harvest during the Youth Turkey seasons.

“Excellent hunting weather made for a strong start to the 2012 season, with a preliminary record of 1,300 wild turkeys harvested during the youth season,” said Paul Brewer, Illinois Department of Natural Resources Wild Turkey Project Manager.  “High early season harvest and progression into the later part of the wild turkey breeding season contributed to harvest declines in the later part of the season. We are hopeful that the excellent spring weather this year will help turkeys rebound in some areas where populations have declined somewhat.  The long term key in improving wild turkey populations will be habitat management, particularly for nesting and brood rearing habitat.”

The 2012 Spring Turkey seasons were April 9-May 10 for the South Zone and April 16-May 17 for the North Zone.  Youth Spring Turkey Seasons were March 31-April 1 in the South Zone and April 7-8 in the North Zone.

The top five counties for wild turkey harvest in the South Zone were Jefferson (468), Wayne (386), Pope (380), Randolph (332), and Marion (331).  Top five North Zone counties this year were JoDaviess (638), Pike (452), Fulton (404), Adams (366), and Macoupin (314).

The table below includes the preliminary 2012 county-by-county spring turkey harvest results with comparable totals for 2011.

COUNTY 2011 2012
Adams 415 366
Alexander 125 119
Bond 157 154
Boone 63 75
Brown 264 242
Bureau 105 140
Calhoun 305 252
Carroll 179 222
Cass 261 246
Champaign 17 17
Christian 42 64
Clark 147 165
Clay 201 219
Clinton 98 114
Coles 26 49
Crawford 170 161
Cumberland 52 78
DeKalb 13 22
DeWitt 39 62
Edgar 90 120
Edwards 87 103
Effingham 95 103
Fayette 213 268
Franklin 200 234
Fulton 449 404
Gallatin 109 123
Greene 236 190
Grundy 44 47
Hamilton 204 207
Hancock 269 230
Hardin 153 154
Henderson 128 168
Henry 62 82
Iroquois 50 75
Jackson 287 323
Jasper 125 141
Jefferson 402 468
Jersey 213 203
JoDaviess 534 638
Johnson 269 261
Kankakee 37 39
Kendall 20 18
Knox 243 241
LaSalle 143 123
Lawrence 108 127
Lee 90 81
Livingston 21 24
Logan 31 35
Macon 26 33
Macoupin 343 314
Madison 243 280
Marion 298 331
Marshall 69 86
Mason 188 194
Massac 87 92
McDonough 119 119
McHenry 38 60
McLean 69 77
Menard 112 117
Mercer 178 209
Monroe 163 170
Montgomery 186 158
Morgan 158 185
Moultrie 21 24
Ogle 158 192
Peoria 192 155
Perry 216 226
Piatt 7 15
Pike 522 452
Pope 356 380
Pulaski 140 140
Putnam 42 52
Randolph 321 332
Richland 101 124
Rock Island 191 207
Saline 134 145
Sangamon 98 90
Schuyler 292 269
Scott 96 85
Shelby 70 96
St. Clair 149 135
Stark 4 6
Stephenson 169 216
Tazewell 64 63
Union 324 290
Vermilion 127 157
Wabash 28 54
Warren 69 65
Washington 153 157
Wayne 314 386
White 165 166
Whiteside 143 185
Will 60 64
Williamson 274 319
Winnebago 173 191
Woodford 80 81

Filed under: Outdoor News

Tags: 2012 spring turkey numbers for Illinois, Don Dziedzina, hunting, Illinois Outdoors, Outdoor News, Outdoors, Turkey Hunting in Illinois

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