Wild Turkey
Autumn is a wonderful time of year. It keeps a wildlife photographer and nature nut like myself very busy. Our extra mild fall weather has extended my wildlife photography season in addition it has made it so much more comfortable to be outside. With the election behind us, I am really looking forward to spending some time with my family this coming Thanksgiving. So it makes perfect sense that at this time of year I can’t help but to think about Wild Turkeys. The Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) is our larges native game bird in North America. This is the species that our domestic white turkey was bred. It was not known to Europeans before coming to the Americas. This is uniquely an American bird and it’s fitting that it is at the center of our yearly tradition of giving thanks for this great nation of ours. Because it was such a plentiful and easy source for food, it was nearly eliminated by over hunting from many parts of the country early on in our history. In the 1930’s this bird was close to extinction. But thankfully major efforts were made to reintroduced the turkey across the US, starting in the early 1960’s with limited success. It wasn’t until the 1980’s did populations take hold and populations start to grow. There was an estimated 30,000 turkeys in the early 1900’s scattered throughout the US. Now there is an estimated 7 million birds and growing. In fact turkeys are now inhabiting areas though not possible for these large birds in the past. It just goes to show you that given a chance, Mother Nature can do some amazing things. There are five subspecies of turkey: Eastern (eastern half of country), Osceola (Florida), Rio Grande (Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado), Merriam’s (western), and Gould’s (Mexico, and New Mexico and Arizona). They all have slightly different coloration especially in the tail. Turkeys have excellent vision as most birds do. Color vision is important for all birds. This is why many birds are brightly colored. In the case of the turkey, not only are the feathers colored, so is the exposed skin on the head, especially the males. Individual adult birds have between 5,000 and 6,000 feathers covering their body. While they appear over-all brown, individual feathers have a metallic iridescence showing varying amounts of green, copper, bronze and gold depending upon the intensity of the sunlight. Sometimes it may be difficult to distinguish males from females. The males are noticeably larger and have a sharp spur on the back of their legs. Although the spurs may be hard to see from a distance, they are sharp and up to two inches long and curve downward. They use the spurs while fighting with other males during breeding season. The males also have a beard, which is a collection of long thin feathers (filaments) resembling hair, clustered in the center of the breast and hang down like a beard. An adult male can have a beard up to a foot long, but most are only nine or ten inches. Interestingly about 10-20 percent of hens also have a beard. At this time of year you see turkeys in self segregated groups. Young males in one group, adult males in another. Females, young and old, stick together along with the young from this past spring. The groups hang together until the breeding season in spring when they will break up for nesting. I think we have a lot to be thankful in this country and our wild birds. Until next time… Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the US to study and photograph wildlife. He can be followed on Twitter or Facebook.com. or he can be contacted via his web page at www.naturesmart.com.
White Meat or Dark?
I am writing this just after eating Thanksgiving dinner with my family and I am wondering just how many people have given any thought to the turkey they just ate? What I mean is, does anyone think about why there is white meat and dark meat in a turkey? It’s all a matter of muscle and fibers. When we eat a turkey, or chicken for that matter, we are eating the bird’s muscles and fibers. Different muscles do different jobs such as walking and flying. Since turkeys are mainly ground dwelling birds they spend a lot of time walking. They need large strong leg muscles that won’t fatigue quickly and will be able to carry their heavy body weight over long distances and for an extended period of time. So the muscles in the legs contain a lot of red fibers (dark meat) that are efficient at aerobic metabolism (requiring a lot of oxygen to get some work done). The dark meat muscles are high in fat and sugar which is the fuel for the muscle when the bird is walking or running. Small songbirds such as an oriole or tanager which migrate long distances have mainly red fiber muscle (dark meat). These muscles can sustain long periods of activity using the stored fats and sugars to fly great distances. Since turkeys spend most of their time on the ground walking and sometimes running at high rates of speed to escape predators, they have a lot of well developed tasty dark meat not only in their legs but in the muscle that support the legs. Dark meat is my personal favorite. White meat is a different story. The large breast muscles in turkeys and chickens are white meat. This muscle is made up of fibers that are light in color. Breast muscle is used only for flight. Contrary to what many think, turkeys and chickens can fly short distances. Turkeys have been clocked up to 55 miles per hour in flight. These birds are adapted for powerful short distant flight that is used to escape predators. These birds literally burst into a very powerful flight from a standing position but fatigue quickly and must glide to a stop and rest. The white meat breast muscle operates on anaerobic metabolism (operating without the need of oxygen). White meat doesn’t have as much fat and sugar stored and so it looks, acts and of course tastes different. Ducks and geese are long distance fliers which mean their breast meat consists of dark meat that is very high in fat and sugar content. So basically the birds with the most sustained flight have the darkest breast meat. In fact, hummingbirds have some of the darkest of breast meat. Just a few things to think about the next time you are enjoying a meal of turkey or chicken. Until next time… Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the US to study and photograph wildlife. He can be contacted via his web page at www.naturesmart.com
Horned Lark
The overall population of ground nesting birds is steadily going down. Here in North America, we have hundreds