LI's first spring turkey hunting season starts Monday
A wild turkey peeks from behind a tree in Bellport. Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost
Here's something even Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd can agree on: A monthlong turkey hunting season begins Monday in Suffolk County — the first spring turkey hunting season on Long Island following more than a dozen successful fall seasons.
Suffolk is the lone county south of the Bronx-Westchester County boundary that will be open to turkey hunting throughout May, with Nassau and all New York City boroughs excluded from hunt activities, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which regulates hunting.
"Opening a spring turkey season on Long Island is a success story for wildlife conservation," DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos said in a statement, adding: "After their translocation to Long Island in the 1990s, turkey numbers in Suffolk County increased to a level where these birds can now be responsibly and sustainably harvested through recreational hunting."
About 3,000 wild turkeys live on Long Island, descendants of a small flock that crossed into western New York from Pennsylvania in the late 1940s, according to the state.
Most of the birds in Suffolk range on land from Rocky Point south to Southaven County Park and east to Montauk, the state said. They have done enough damage to crops and fields to warrant the issuance of so-called nuisance permits, the state said, with hunts designed to control populations.
The state said it expects about 18,000 turkeys will be harvested during the spring hunt across the state.
Here's what Long Islanders need to know:
- Hunters cannot use a crossbow or rifle, and while they can use shotguns and handguns, they cannot use handguns on state land, and in all cases must use shot sizes no larger than No. 2 and no smaller than No. 9. Bullets are not allowed.
- All hunters must be licensed and must have a specific turkey permit in addition to that license.
- Hunters also must fill out a permit tag for every bird shot and, as per state regulation, can only take one bearded bird during the season in Suffolk. Elsewhere in the state, hunters are allowed two bearded birds during the season — though just one on any given day, officials said.
- Hunters can hunt from one half-hour before sunrise to noon.
- The harvest of all birds must be reported within seven days to the DEC Game Harvest Reporting webpage or by calling the DEC at 1-866-GAMERPT.
The state also stressed that participants in the spring turkey hunting season adhere to a wide range of safe practices, including: always point their guns in a safe direction, treat every gun as if it is loaded, keep their fingers off the trigger until ready to shoot, and be sure of not only their target but what lies beyond when they do prepare to fire.
The state advised hunters not to stalk birds, noting that more than half of all turkey hunting injuries occur when "one hunter stalks another," and said hunters should always assume any call or footsteps are those of another hunter. The state warned hunters not to shoot unless they can see the entire bird and also determine its sex. Hunters should always wear hunter orange, the state said, and should mark surrounding trees in their location in orange as well.
For additional guidelines, regulations and tips, visit the "Turkey Hunting" pages of the DEC website at https://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/8366.html.
John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”
