[EBB Sightings] possible reason for bumper turkey year

This last fall was considered one of the most bountiful year for acorns 
in many people's memory, both here in Walnut Creek and up in Mendocino 
Cty. All my oldtimer relatives up there were predicting a huge winter, 
which has sort of come to pass, but more down South than here. Folk 
wisdom is that when oaks produce so many acorns, the great winter 
results.

In general, there was just a lot of berries, nuts etc. I think it 
accounts for a bumper crop of turkeys. I do not know if DDT affected 
turkeys, but it has been a great joy of my life to see so many more 
predatory birds around. When I was a kid, hawks were around but not 
numerous like today. I had only heard about peregrine falcons, yet just 
three years ago, there was a nest in the Eucalpytus trees at Contra 
Costa College. Hawks are everywhere now and I wonder if the turkeys are 
back for similar reason.

Crows are a different matter. Many ask our local nature columnist why 
there are so many crows. I asked my Dad about it (my Dad is a cattle 
rancher and a definite old-timer on all subjects outdoorsy, including 
lions, bears, grasses, etc). He told me that when he was a kid, there 
was a standing bounty of "a nickel a crow" so every little boy with a 
.22 was busy. This included both rural counties, like Humboldt (where 
he is from) to Contra Costa and Alameda, where he was moved to during 
elementary school years (mid-1930s). Of course, there were so many more 
orchards in those days that the crows were considered a very 
unprofitable threat.

I shall search for a turkey nest. Probably in some tick-infested 
thicket!