[EBB Sightings] general turkey info

I�m not sure if I�m a turkey expert, but I�ve been
studying them for the past few years as part of my
graduate work at UC Berkeley.  My focal population is
down at the Hastings Natural History Reservation (UC
Berkeley owned field station) in upper Carmel Valley,
so I don�t have any specific insights in terms of the
range/movements etc of East Bay turkeys, but hopefully
the info will be useful for some of the general
questions appearing on the list.

Why are there so many turkeys?
Probably the best answer to this is because 100 years
ago, there were none in California, and most of the
populations in CA have been founded in the past 20-50
years.  It takes a while for these guys to become
established on the state lands and then move into the
�burbs where you all are commonly seeing them.  This
is actually true in almost every state- if you look at
the online data from the Christmas Bird Counts, most
states have what looks like exponential growth of
turkey populations.  So in short, it looks like we
have a lot now because we didn�t have any before.

Acorn mast may also be important, but these guys can
definitely eat other things during the winter.  My
impression (not backed by any data really), is that a
poor acorn year will have more effect in 2 years
rather than the next spring because females may not
have the energy reserves to nest or to re-nest if
their first nest is lost (so less reproduction, rather
than direct starving of turkeys in the winter)

Where do turkeys nest?
On the ground.  Usually 8-12 eggs, sometimes more, not
that much bigger than chicken eggs, and typically
speckled.  There may be a trend where until the grass
in fields gets tall enough they may be more likely to
nest at the base of a tree in some brush in a canyon,
but the later nests were often in the middle of a
grassy field.  The nest is in a shallow scrape that
can be lined with a few leaves or dried grass.  Before
incubation, the female will cover eggs with leaves-
after incubation, she�s on the nest 23 out of 24 hrs
in a day.  She takes off with the poults once they�ve
hatched (about a 28day incubation period).

I used radiotelemetry to find nests.  They are almost
impossible to find otherwise.  If you do stumble upon
a nest, the female is likely to flush (pretty scary
when this happens).  If she does flush even once,
there is a very good chance she will just abandon the
nest.  Also, ground predators are known to follow the
scent of human foot trails, so your approach to the
nest could bring coyotes, fox, skunks etc that could
depredate the nest and potentially kill the female on
the nest.  So like any bird, don�t approach their nest
unless you really know what you�re doing.

Effects of turkey on quail.
Not really a whole lot of data on this.  I do remember
seeing some study looking at that (with bobwhite
somewhere in the southeast) but can�t seem to find it
now.  My guess is that yes, at some point a turkey has
broken up a quail nest, but that this impact on quail
is pretty minimal compared with mammalian predators
and human development.  Interestingly, I once found a
Cal.  Quail egg laid in a turkey nest- probably this
egg never hatched but I don�t know for sure.

Hope this was of interest

Cheers
Alan


=====
Alan Krakauer, Ph.D Candidate
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology 
3101 Valley Life Sciences Building
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-3160
Office: (510) 642-7888 
fax: (510) 643-8238  
krakauer at berkeley.edu