Warner Corner - November 2009

Why did the turkey cross the road?
Kelly Amoth, Interpretive Naturalist

They strike fear into the hearts of school bus drivers as they fly directly at the level of their windshields.

Flying at night from their high roosts in trees, they terrify even the bravest of bird banders.

And for me, the sight of them is usually enough to stop me cold in my tracks.

Earlier this fall, I was only a few minutes into my run and just beginning to fall into my pace and rhythm for the morning when I had to come to a complete stop. As a runner who cares about keeping her ankles and calves intact, I always at least pause for dogs. But today I shared the trail with eight turkeys that could not care less about slowing me down as they themselves meandered across the trail and into the bordering wetland. They quickly blended into the tall grass and patchy early morning sunshine; and I was left standing stalled in surprise. After I lived for the past year on the North Shore, the shock from a flushing a carefully camouflaged ruffed grouse had become familiar, but did not prepare me at all to find turkeys living in the woods of suburban St. Paul surrounded by the hum of early morning traffic filtering through the trees. Shaking my head in disbelief, I started my watch again and headed off down the trail ready for the unexpected.

The tale of the wild turkey in Minnesota and its prevalence across the state is one of great conservation success. Wild turkeys are native to North America, but due to over hunting, logging, and the conversion of forests to farm lands, by the 1880s their population severely declined. Wildlife managers in Minnesota worked for decades to revive the population of wild turkeys through releasing young turkeys (poults) bred on game farms into the woods, but the birds quickly became easy prey for foxes and coyotes. The wild turkey population was not revived in Minnesota until 1973 when wildlife managers traded 85 ruffed grouse for 29 adult wild turkeys living in Missouri. Five years after reintroduction, the wild turkey population reached a stable enough number that hunting was allowed, though in that first year hunters harvested less than 100 birds; today hunters regularly harvest close to 5000 as the overall population of wild turkeys has reached over 30000 with most of the population concentrated in the southern Minnesota. The same method of introducing adult wild turkeys has been so successful across the United States that wild turkeys are now found in every state except Alaska, and the population has reached such a healthy level that they are a species of least concern because their numbers continue to increase nationwide.

As omnivores, wild turkeys will eat everything they can find, including acorns, grasses, ferns, insects, berries, buds, and even salamanders and frogs. With fall coming to an end, turkeys have becoming an increasingly common sight feeding in the fields around Warner before the deep snows of winter arrive. Lately I've begun spying on two turkeys that have taken to cleaning up the seed underneath the bird feeders. I am not even surprised these days when I have to stop my car on the way home from work to let a flock of 12 slow turkeys cross the road in front of me. It seems that turkeys are suddenly everywhere. My initial fascination with wild turkeys began last spring on a muddy dirt road in the Black Hills of South Dakota, when my astute friend slowly pulled the truck to a stop, rolled down his window and yelled "DORK DORK DORK DORK" (at least that is what his call sounded like to me!) to a cluster of retreating turkeys hoping to hear a glorious gobble in response from one of the toms. Though they appear awkward and slow, wild turkeys can fly (at speeds reaching 55 mph for short distances) and can actually escape from great horned owls. They have excellent eyesight and can see colors very well, which is why turkey hunters go to such great lengths to camouflage themselves entirely when hunting.

I would be remiss with the great American holiday of Thanksgiving upon us without mentioning the domestic turkey, which most of us will enjoy on November 26. Unlike the wild turkey, which has mostly black, brown and gray feathers, domesticated turkeys are completely white, and they are bred to be much larger than wild turkeys. They are also unable to fly, and are easily preyed upon by predators. And of all places, Minnesota is actually the top producer of turkeys!

Benjamin Franklin, in response to the turkey losing by a single vote to the bald eagle to be the nation's symbol, wrote in a letter to his daughter, "For the truth the turkey is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original Native of America... He is besides, though a little vain and silly, a bird of courage." Whether you find yourself slowing for a flock of turkeys to cross the road or you see a few under your bird feeders, take time this month to enjoy the wild turkey.