[EBB Sightings] Re: Sightings Digest, Vol 25, Issue 4 re turkeys

Yes, turkeys are busting out all over. We have many hundreds where I 
work here in Rossmoor, to the point that the authorities were called in 
to liquidate them under a "predation" permit.  But after the shooting 
was over, it turned out that there were more where they came from!

As much as we all love animal life and especially birds here, I see 
Canada geese and wild turkeys reaching nuisance levels very, very soon. 
Like here in Tice Valley, people will demand that "something be done."

The other day, I saw some turkeys on San Pablo Dam Road in El Sobrante, 
near the car wash, a scant several hundred yards from Interstate 80. 
They were happily picking through the commercial landscaping, eating 
some kind of berry. They are even more flexible than geese, in terms of 
what they will eat and what kind of terrain they will negotiate. This 
siting reminds me that they have literally reached the northern end of 
the Berkeley Hills, right down to flatland level. I know they are in 
Pinole as well. I had one in my yard a few months ago. My neighbor was 
so shocked I thought she had seen a Martian.

Just like with raptors, the way that society has changed in my 
lifetime, where most little boys don't have BB guns, and teens don't 
"go shootin'" with 22s up to the canyon (well, at least not at 
non-humans) is what has fostered these new animal dilemmas. I think 
that possible predators, like coyotes and foxes, are just spooked 
enough by the human populace that they will not be sufficient to 
balance the numbers in certain places. This is what has happened with 
deer in El Cerrito, particularly. They are pretty darn suburbanized 
there.

  In Rossmoor, where many of the attached units are constructed on 
sloping terrain, resulting in an alcove of sorts on the downhill side, 
there are what I call "deer apartments." The deer are born under the 
homes, venture out onto the golf course for water and shrubbery and 
return to their homes to sleep. They spend their lives here and die of 
old age (or disease)! Their only enemy is the car (though we have had 
lion sightings) . I really wanted to do a photo essay on these 
cliff-dwellers, but I am no photographer.

We have many Canada geese here (I work right on the golf course). I 
look at how slow they are and I keep expecting Wile E. Coyote to jump 
out of the bushes and snatch one up, especially the goslings. I can't 
believe the raccoons don't get 'em as well.  But there are people and 
roads surrounding this particular habitat.  And the geese are "smart" 
enough to know it, so their numbers have exploded. There is a similar 
situation near Ocean View Elementary School in Albany, though I believe 
that construction disrupted them recently. Our golf course manager 
(Rossmoor)  hired a woman with a sheep dog to roust the geese off of 
the course. So they take flight  (honking all the while) and fly in 
circles around the valley until the woman goes away. Apparently, they 
now take flight when they see her car!!

If you have seed drop from your feeders and attract a turkey, you will 
have friends for life. I've seen in happen out here. They will tear the 
heck out of your lawn and landscaping.  So, I would caution you about 
thinking it's wonderful..

I don't have the answers and I don't relish destruction of animal life 
but either we consider hunting and/or eating wild turkey and geese or 
they are going to be slaughtered and dumped by authorities anyway, like 
urban deer. I know this thought offends many, but these critters are 
too much like humans: large, loud, fecund,  not particularly attractive 
and they crap on everything. That's the problem. Not little and cute 
enough. Though I am being a bit silly here, in fact, they are competing 
for the native bird resources, and we should consider this seriously.

Unfortunately, the other scenario will be some kind of virus, and I 
think that might happen instead. We won't like that either, because it 
might reach into domestic poultry as well as wild bird populations,  
perhaps.

Doesn't look good.

Lance Beeson