Double Banded Gobbler

By OVO Publisher - Dave Freeman

It was a picture perfect opening day to the 2004 turkey season. There were pleasant temperatures, clear skies and just enough breeze to supply consistent action to my jake and hen decoys, placed strategically 20 yards to the front and left (I’m right handed) of me.

The day before the season I had several gobblers competing for vocalization honors near my hunting area.

Treetop gobbling filled the air as first light made way to a breathtaking sunrise. I had positioned myself in a ground blind in-between where I felt the birds had roosted. My plan that April morning was simple, to be the hen between the gobblers and let nature and competition do the rest.

After a series of light yelps and a fly-down cackle the stage was set. Here they came -- not one, but two gobbling two year-olds emerging from the shadows.

Brass-colored feathers were glistening in the early morning light in full strut to impress the so-called hen.

After surveying both birds as to size, beard and spurs, I silently clicked off the safety of my turkey gun and squeezed the trigger.

A 20-yard shot, a clear harvest, a 22-pound, 11-inch beard and one and one/eighth spurred Tom awaited me.

End of story right?

Wrong, only the beginning.

I unloaded my 12-gage, put my calls away, placed my decoys back inside their case and went to pick up my prize. With little flopping action, my gobbler had ended up on his belly, and when I rolled him over to check out his spurs, surprise.

In addition to one and one/eighth inch spurs on each leg, the bird sported two silver, numbered turkey bands.

Surprise made way to curiosity as I examined the bands; both had scratches and showed signs of extreme wear. The four-digit numbers on both bands were the same, as was the 740 area code and phone number that said call for reward.

While I was familiar with waterfowl, grouse, pheasant and even turkey banding programs, I had not heard a lot about turkey banding for some time. I had figured that once Ohio’s flock had gotten to a certain size and stocking was completed, the banding program was over.

After tagging my bird, I transported him to the truck and then to Farmer Bill’s grocery store near Gavers, Ohio for the tagging process. I checked in my prize and marked the box on the check slip about a banded bird and entered the band numbers. Once home with my harvest, I decided to call the number on the band.

"Division of Wildlife," Dave Swanson said at the other end. "Dave Swanson," I said "Yes, who is this," he answered.

Then we both laughed. Dave is the head biologist at the Division of Wildlife Waterloo Research Station. Dave is the biologist I interviewed a couple times a year for our OVO Deer and Turkey Forecast and here he was at the other end of the phone number from my turkey’s leg bands.

Dave told me the banding program was part of a gobbler mortality study that was started in 1997, and the study was designed to let the division biologist study harvest information on Ohio’s gobblers.

He said that from December through March birds are live trapped and netted on both public and private land, and while most birds are banded and released on the spot some are in fact transported to other Ohio locations.

Two thousand one hundred and thirty two birds had been banded since the beginning of the program, according to Dave. Calls and tag reports to the division have indicated that 211, or 19 percent, of the banded have been harvested.

Dave also told me that my reward for calling in the band number was a pin supplied by the Division which reads "Wildlife Management Cooperator."

The Division also sends letters to those supplying the banding information as to where and when the bird was banded. Dave explained the two leg bands were also mine to keep.

True to his word, within just a few days my pin and letter arrived.

It seems this particular bird had been live trapped at Highlandtown Wildlife Area in February of this year. As spring, food and the breeding season came around, the gobbler had traveled about eight miles to where a phony female did him in.

So there you have it. Not only did I come across some interesting information on the Division’s efforts to study, maintain and balance our game and fish, but I learned how an outdoor writer can get a complete story out of a hunt that lasted only a short time.