November 2022 – Reflections of the Natural World

Wild Turkey

Meleagris gallopavo

By Jim Gain

Learn 100 Common Valley Birds is a photo blog series highlighting the 100 most common Valley bird species.

Post #14 in the Learn 100 Common Valley Birds series. (Species 19/100.)

INTRODUCTION

The Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) is the heaviest upland ground bird native to North America. It is the ancestor to the domestic turkey, which was originally derived from a southern Mexican subspecies of wild turkey. With the population steadily increasing over the past decade, Wild Turkey is an Uncommon to Fairly Common Resident with higher numbers found in the foothills than on the valley floor.

THANKSGIVING DINNER?

There’s a good chance the Pilgrims and Wampanoag did in fact eat turkey as part of that very first Thanksgiving. Wild turkey was a common food source for people who settled Plymouth. In the days prior to the celebration, the colony’s governor sent four men to go “fowling”—that is, to hunt for birds. Did they come back with any turkey? We don’t know for sure, but probably. At the very least, we know there was a lot of meat, since the native Wampanoag people who celebrated with the Pilgrims added five deer to the menu. (First Thanksgiving Meal)

WILD TURKEY IMMIGRATION TO CALIFORNIA

The Wild Turkey is not native to the Central Valley of California. It was introduced from the 1950s through the end of the twentieth century by the California Fish and Game Commission (now the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Fish & Wildlife imported thousands of non-native Rio Grande wild turkeys to California, releasing them in over 200 locations throughout the state. The turkeys quickly adapted and can now be found living everywhere from oak savannas to the suburbs.

A couple of local spots to find Wild Turkeys would be Henderson Park in Merced County, in the upper foothills of Del Puerto Canyon in Stanislaus County and the Mokelumne River Day Use Area in San Joaquin County.

TWO TURKEYS

In addition to the Wild Turkey, the only other member of the Meleagris genus in the world is the Ocellated Turkey of the Yucatan Peninsula.

Wild Turkey | Ocellated Turkey (Calakmul Ruins, Campeche)

COOL FACT:

When they need to, Turkeys can swim by tucking their wings in close, spreading their tails, and kicking.

Previous posts from the Learn 100 Common Valley Birds series,

Western Meadowlark

Sturnella neglecta

By Jim Gain

Learn 100 Common Valley Birds is a photo blog series highlighting the 100 most common Valley bird species.

Post #13 in the Learn 100 Common Valley Birds series. (Species 18/100.)

INTRODUCTION

The buoyant, flutelike melody of the Western Meadowlark ringing out across a field can brighten anyone’s day. The Western Meadowlark is a Common Year-round Resident throughout the open country of the San Joaquin Valley. The Western Meadowlark is not a lark (Family Alaudidae) but is related instead to New World blackbirds and troupials (Family Icteridae).

APPEARANCE

This colorful member of the blackbird family flashes a vibrant yellow breast crossed by a distinctive, black, V-shaped band.

DISTRIBUTION

The Western Meadowlark is one of our most abundant and widely distributed grassland birds. It inhabits most open country of both natural and planted grasslands of the valley floor.

COOL FACT:

John James Audubon gave the Western Meadowlark its scientific name, Sturnella (starling-like) neglecta, claiming that most explorers and settlers who ventured west of the Mississippi after Lewis and Clark had overlooked this common bird.

CONSERVATION STATUS:

Although Western Meadowlarks are numerous, their breeding populations declined approximately 0.9% per year between 1966 and 2019, resulting in a cumulative decline of about 37%, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey.

The graph below shows the Central Valley population trends between 2007 and 2021. The larger the red circle, the greater the decline in numbers.

Declines may be due, in part, to conversion of grassland breeding and wintering habitat for housing and agricultural uses. Other factors affecting Western Meadowlark populations may include pesticides, habitat degradation due to invasive plant species, and fire suppression that alters native grasslands. (From All About Birds.com)

Previous posts from the Learn 100 Common Valley Birds series,

Our Wintering “White” Geese – Part II

By Jim Gain

Learn 100 Common Valley Birds is a photo blog series highlighting 100 of the most common Valley bird species.

Post #12 in the Learn 100 Common Valley Birds series. (Species 16 and 17/100.)

In Part I of the Our Wintering “White” Geese post, we learned about the larger “white Goose with the Grinning Patch”, the Snow Goose.

Snow Goose (lower left) Ross’s Goose (upper right)

In this post the star of the show is the more diminutive Ross’s Goose.

ROSS’S GOOSE Anser rossii (Cassin, 1861)

INTRODUCTION

The Ross’s Goose is a Fairly Common Winter Visitor found almost exclusively in winter in the Central Valley. Similar to the Snow Goose, its referred habitats are fresh emergent wetlands, adjacent lacustrine waters, and nearby wet croplands, pastures, meadows, and grasslands. Fairly Common from November to early March.

DESCRIPTION

Plumage is similar to white morph of Greater and Lesser Snow geese, but average annual body mass of Ross’s Goose is 60% and 67% of these species. Feathers of lore meet base of maxilla forming a straight line instead of a forward curved arc typical of Greater and Lesser Snow geese.

On basal half and sides of maxilla, particularly in mature males, are species-specific vascular wartlike protuberances or caruncles which become more prevalent with age and possibly act as a badge or status symbol, serving to limit contests among conspecifics.

DIMORPHIC FORMS

Similar to the “Blue morph” Snow Goose, the adult blue morph Ross’s Goose has the same dark gray-brown body but a reduced amount of white confined to just the head.

The odds of finding a dark or “Blue” morph have been calculated at about 0.008% (3 out of 38,825).

DISTRIBUTION

The main wintering area for the species is presently the Central Valley of California. The total number of birds has increased from a recorded low of 2,000–3,000 in the early 1950s to more than exceed 2 million birds in 2009.

COOL FACTS

The female Ross’s Goose does all of the incubation of the eggs. The male stays nearby and guards her the whole time. The female covers the eggs with down when she leaves the nest. The down keeps the eggs warm while she is away and may help hide them from predators.

Previous posts from the Learn 100 Common Valley Birds series,