Turkey Track

I found this track in soft sand ... and wondered what bird around here makes a track 5 inches wide?  The toes looked too fat to be a great blue heron and my first impression was 5 inches across was too big for a wild turkey.  Then I found the feather.  I was sure it was the breast feather from a tom (male).  Finally, at home, I looked up the size of turkey tracks.  It definitely could be a tom turkey's.

Ransacked by a Rafter of Turkeys

Last week on February 27th I noticed that almost all of the skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) in the fen had been ransacked by a rafter of wild turkeys. In all cases the tops of the cabbage flowers were simply ripped off or ripped open but all parts and pieces appeared to be present – the turkeys were not eating the skunk cabbage – so what were they up to?

It is well documented that the inside of a skunk cabbage flower is stinky and can be as much as 36 degrees warmer than the outside temperature, often melting the snow around it. The temperature difference creates a nice toasty sauna-like atmosphere for potential pollinators. I imagine a bunch of early emerging insects crowding in to the warm and stinky skunk cabbage saloon to get a bite to eat and stay dry on cold February and March nights not realizing that the local turkeys know right where they are. Tired of a winter diet of nuts and soft body insects the turkeys probably have a hankering for something warm and crunchy.

I can’t find anything online about turkey destroying skunk cabbage in search of insects, but I have to think that is what they are up to – I hope it is not just a bunch of young Jakes being teenagers.

http://www.buroakbotanicals.blogspot.com/

Wild Turkey Feather

Umpqua National Forest, Oregon, USA

Western Oregon is a mix of fairly open valleys and deep forest at higher elevations. When we first moved here a wild turkey was a rare sight … and a little suspect as to whether it really qualified as a wild one or a domestic that had gone wandering. There were meager results from early attempts to introduce birds. But then the Fish and Wildlife Department learned how to successfully transport wild turkeys for a successful introduction. Earlier attempts had penned the birds for awhile. Biologists found that the birds needed to be caught quickly, immediately flown to the new location, and released. Now the lower elevations have plenty of turkeys, perhaps too many. Often a flock becomes quite tame and becomes a yard nuisance. A strutting tom is a formidable force if he thinks your front porch is his territory.

The turkeys that have established themselves on National Forest land are much wilder. Food is scarcer and their numbers are much lower. Their wariness is reinforced by a hunting season. Once in awhile we see one quickly slipping into the undergrowth. Just finding a feather of one of these wilder ones is a treat. This feather is about five inches long and comes from underneath its beautiful tail feathers. I found it a few feet from a water source at about 3200 feet in elevation – a little higher than I expect to find them. I brought the feather back to the car and painted it quickly.