Turkeys

Thanksgiving dinner is a time to enjoy many delicious foods including turkey, yams, mashed potatoes with gravy, bread stuffing, oyster stuffing, cranberries, corn, hot cider, and pumpkin pie.  There are lots of elements to the traditional Thanksgiving Day feast, but one common denominator is the turkey.  In 1621, William Bradford, a colonist of the Pilgrims of Plymouth, wrote in his journal about how wild turkey was hunted during that autumn, which many consider led to the first Thanksgiving Day.  The dishes served with the main course were all foods that the colonists learned about from the native Americans.

In the late 1850s, Bradford’s journals were reprinted across the United States and caused such interest in celebrating autumn that President Abraham Lincoln declared a national holiday of Thanksgiving starting in 1863.  By this time, ham was available for families who did not hunt, but it has never been associated with the original feast since pigs were not kept as livestock until 1623.  And the turkey, being a big bird, is able to feed a large number of family members at one sitting. 

Turkeys originated from pheasants ten to fifteen million years ago in Central America.  The species slowly spread northwards and out to both coasts making the turkey a true native of North America.  It is one of the most ornate game birds in the order Galliformes which includes several other colorful birds such as grouse, pheasant and guineafowl.  Turkeys sport a barred feather pattern of green, chocolate brown, and dark reddish orange with a naked ruddy head.  Males have a crimson wattle and a long black tuft of feathers hanging from their breast.  The colorful plumage is thought to be used mostly for courtship displays, but it also provides surprisingly effective camouflage in tall grasses and woodland edges, their preferred habitat.  Legs are well developed and muscled for walking and feet have three toes facing forward and one facing behind, plus a spur off the back of the foot on males, used as a weapon when sparring for partners.

Spending most of their time on the ground, there is no mistaking where turkeys have been foraging for food in a woodland.  Walking through an area and scratching the ground with their feet, turkeys search for nuts, berries, fruits, seeds and insects.  In autumn, the trail of scratching is more apparent as fallen leaves are piled to one side to find food.  Turkeys are difficult to hunt because they are aware of their surroundings at all times.  They have excellent eyesight, up to three times better than humans, and acute hearing, able to distinguish calls up to a mile away.  On the ground, turkeys are able to run away at 20mph and can fly straight up, level off and hit flight speeds topping 60mph.  Game birds throughout North America are not migratory species, but they may move short distances due to weather when searching for available food.

Being a popular species for hunting and eating, turkeys were all but eliminated by 1900.  In the 1950s, an extensive effort to reintroduce them into their historic range was successfully undertaken through several large scale captive breeding programs.  Further hunting restrictions introduced in the 1960s and 1970s greatly increased populations of all game birds, and turkey populations across the United States rebounded.  When hiking in DuPage County, rafters, groups, of turkeys mainly composed of adult males, toms, and adult females, hens, can be observed at many local hot spots including Herrick Lake, Blackwell, Danada, and St. James Farm forest preserves as well as Catigny Gardens.  In spring and summer, poults, baby turkeys, jennys, adolescent females, and jakes, adolescent males, will also be out struttin’ their stuff.

Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday filled with your own traditions.  Thank you for reading our columns and enjoying nature.