I count this breed as a water spaniel, even though its original purpose was to flush wild turkeys. It is the state dog of South Carolina.
The first one I ever saw was on the beach at Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. I thought it was a field spaniel from a distance, but then I saw the coat and I realized that I was looking at a dog I’d only read about– the fabled Boykin spaniel.
This little 12 week old has a lot of retrieving instinct. A nice little pup– could do with a name change though!
The first time I ever saw a wild turkey was in your home state of WV. They seem to be out and about starting in September. I had a flock of about 30 next to our cabin last year. Once they heard the door open, they took off into the forest.
When you drive around in rural West Virginia, especially right after the corn has been cut, you see great flocks of these birds hanging around. I have watched them cross rivers by flying across them.
Well, heck! Turkeys aren’t anything special. I’ve got a couple of dozen of wild turkeys that hang out on my driveway for most of the year.
It’s a blast to watch them walk single file down the sidewalk while they’re doing the rounds.
We have tons of them in West Virginia. West Virginia was one of the first states to successfully reintroduce the Eastern wild turkey. Our DNR was sending them all over the Eastern and Midwestern US to restock populations. We traded wild turkeys to New Hampshire for fishers, so now we have fishers restored here, too.
Our black bear population is also booming. Some areas in the state have more productive black bear populations than any in any national park, and they are recolonizing Ohio from West Virginia.
We don’t have the game bird populations that we once did, except for wild turkeys. I have never seen a true “wild” northern bobwhite here in my lifetime, but my grandparents remember them. We still have ruffed grouse and woodcock here, and then we have a small population of pheasants. We really don’t have the best pheasant land available, but I think we have good habitat for the golden pheasant, which Michigan has introduced as a game bird.
There is a shell-bark hickory at my parents’ house in the corner of the yard. The local turkeys roost there in the summer months, when the winter wheat is in full head. (This wheat is planted to attract deer for the gun).
Can you use dogs in California to hunt turkeys? In West Virginia, it’s illegal during the spring season.
Dogs aren’t used on turkeys here. Good thing, too. We’ve had too many close encounters when I’ve opened my door (front or back) with a dog at heel and found myself face to beak with one of them.
Here’s a shot of one guy trying to romance or threaten my SUV —
And here are several other photos – http://www.flickr.com/photos/pskorupa/sets/72157604194954503/
Those look like Rio Grandes. They are lighter in color than the Eastern subspecies.
Eastern:
Rio Grande: http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g221/huntwriter/Turkey/rio_grande.jpg
Subspecies range map: http://www.nwtf.org/images/range_map_full.jpg
Thank you, W.V., for sending your wild turkeys north. You can have as many fishers as you want, lol.
Patti, that photo of the macho turkey showing off for your SUV should be in a contest!
Retrieverman, I was looking forward to seeing the Boykin on your blog. I’ve met a few of these guys & really liked their personalities. I know that there was a lot of hip dysplasia in the breed & they were working hard to weed it out, but I expect they have a pretty small gene pool.
What have you got against fishers?
If you didn’t have fishers, the porcupines would destroy all the forests.
Nothing against fishers per se. I’m just not really into weaselly animals, except otters. I just used to worry about them getting the cat, but he sticks closer to home now.
Plus, I don’t look forward to having to de-porcupine a dog, so you have a good point.
But I really like wild turkeys. My sheep don’t however. They got into a standoff with them once — against about 25 turkeys in a line. It looked like the ‘Hollywood Western’ guys vs. the “Spaghetti Western guys.’