Recovering the Wild Turkey with Kelsey Sullivan — WildFed Podcast #012

iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | RSS

---

In this episode:

Kelsey Sullivan | Migratory & Upland Game Bird Biologist for Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife

Podcast discussion:

• Introduction to Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife (MDIFW)

• Kelsey’s work and how he got involved with it

• Working on the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska

• Kelsey's current work with MDIFW

• Status of Maine woodcock

• Dealing with bugs in the field

• The history of wild turkeys and turkey hunting in Maine

• Differing opinions on the Maine turkey population

• Status of the scientific understanding of wild turkey management

• Turkey hunting in Maine today

• Kelsey’s tips for successful and conscientious turkey hunting

• Impact of predation on turkeys

• The year of a turkey

• Appreciating turkeys

---

WildFed Podcast is brought to you by:

---

Episode Resources: 

• Maine Inland Fisheries & Wildlife

• APEX (Alaska Predator Ecosystem eXperiment) Project

• Black oystercatcher, Haematopus bachmani

• American Woodcock, Scolopax minor

• Maine Wild Turkey

• Maine Wild Turkey Status and Management

• Article: MDIFW moves forward with efforts to assess Maine’s wild turkey population

• Pittman–Robertson Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act

• Dingell-Johnson Sport Fish Restoration Act

• National Wild Turkey Federation

• Video: How to Use a Wingbone Turkey Call

• Documentary: My Life as a Turkey

---

Meet Kelsey Sullivan

Photo credit: Brian Feulner, Bangor Daily News | Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife biologist Kelsey Sullivan pulls a ruffed grouse from a trap used to study the birds in September 2014 at the midcoast Maine survey site.

Kelsey Sullivan is the Migratory and Upland Game Bird biologist for Maine's Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife. Kelsey coordinates MDIFW’s waterfowl banding programs, game bird surveys, and research to assess the status of game bird populations in Maine. His responsibilities include ruffed grouse, American woodcock, wild turkeys, ducks, and Canada geese. Over the past year, Kelsey and his crew banded over 2,000 ducks and geese; captured and sampled over 300 birds for avian influenza; provided technical expertise to University of Maine researchers on UMO’s ruffed grouse study; conducted ruffed grouse drumming surveys, woodcock surveys and waterfowl and turkey brood count surveys; and was an integral part of the department’s species planning process for wild turkeys, which initiated a large-scale wild turkey field research project.