Bio Bits: How To Feed And Clean A Turkey

As breeding season gets underway and gobbling can be heard in our woodlands and meadows, we notice the wild turkey’s (Meleagris gallopavo) activities. This bird is native to North and Central America and was domesticated in Mexico centuries ago. In the sixteenth century Spanish conquerors brought some of these domesticated birds back to Spain where they continued to be bred in captivity. 

These turkeys were later introduced to France and England. European colonists eventually brought the turkey full circle – back to America as a domesticated version of its wild American cousin. 

Wild turkeys feed on seeds and nuts, as well fruits, leaves, insects (like grasshoppers) and even small vertebrates (like salamanders). In the fall and winter acorns, hickory nuts and beechnuts become the mainstay of the wild turkey diet. All food consumed by the turkey, including seeds, nuts and crunchy insects, pass through the turkey’s gizzard, the hard muscular section of the stomach. The gizzard grinds the food with the aid of “grit,” such as sand or small pebbles, which the turkey ingests for this very reason. In experiments it was found that a turkey’s gizzard could crush an object that required more than 400 pounds of pressure per square inch!

Patches of bare dry ground are attractive to wild turkeys not only for the grit they offer, but also as sites for dust baths. Loose dusty sand is an ideal medium in which to look for signs of wild turkey bathing activity. A flock will spend a good deal of time at the site as each turkey takes a turn, lowering its body to the ground while flinging sand onto its back with its wings. Puffing its feathers allows the sand to reach all the turkey’s skin and feather surfaces. A vigorous shake, some preening of feathers, and the turkey is ready to resume its daily activities, perhaps leaving behind footprints and wing impressions in the dust for an observant person to discover. 

Submitted by Cindi Kobak

Photos: Wikimedia

(From the March 2013 Newsletter)

The Atlantic Flyway

Roughly 10 percent of Americans live within 50 miles of Long Island Sound.  As part of the Atlantic Flyway Saving Important Bird Areas strategy Audubon is leading an ambitious effort to restore the Sound’s health in a way that supports populations of priority waterbirds and shorebirds while balancing the needs of nature and people. 

Sound Vision, a two-year action plan to protect and restore the Sound developed by the Long Island Sound Citizens Advisory Committee, combines restoration projects with unified legislative efforts. Science plays a key role in Audubon’s efforts in the Sound, exemplified by Audubon Connecticut’s work to assess breeding success and identify optimal nesting locations that will ultimately benefit American Oystercatchers, Piping Plovers, Saltmarsh Sparrows, Roseate Terns, and other priority bird species.

(From the March 2013 Newsletter)

Citizen Science: Nature’s Notebook

The USA National Phenology Network brings together citizen scientists, government agencies, non-profit groups, educators and students of all ages to monitor the impacts of climate change on plants and animals in the United States. The network harnesses the power of people and the Internet to collect and share information, providing researchers with far more data than they could collect alone.
                   

Nature’s Notebook is a national plant and animal phenology observation program of the USA-NPN. You can join thousands of other individuals who are providing valuable observations that scientists, educators, policy makers, and resource managers are using to understand how plants and animals are responding to climate change and other environmental changes. Observations by participants like you are already helping researchers detect early leaf-out in forests from St. Louis to Maine in response to unusually warm winters and springs. 

There are four easy steps to get started observing plants and animals in your area:

• Learn about the plants and animals you can observe
  Find out which species in your area are on the list - learn more about them and the phenophases to look for. (Examples of springtime phenophases that interest scientists include flowering, leaf unfolding, insect emergence, and bird, fish, and mammal migration.)
• Learn how to observe
  Learn how to select a site, select your plants and animals, and record your observations.
• Sign up to be an observer
  Become an official participant and set your username and password. All you need is an email address and Internet access.
• Log in to Nature’s Notebook
  As you collect data during the season, log in to your account at Nature’s Notebook and enter your observations.

Go to www.usanpn.org/participate/observe for complete information.

(From the March 2013 Newsletter)

Invasive Plants Destructive to the Environment; Natives Are More Suitable Alternatives

With spring and a new gardening season coming in a few weeks, it is an ideal time to consider the invasive plants in our landscape and native plants that are suitable alternatives.

The Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group defines an “invasive plant as a species non-native to the ecosystem under consideration, and whose introduction, whether accidental or intentional, causes or is likely to cause harm to the environment, economy or human health.”

Autumn olive (Elaeagnus umbellata) was introduced into North America from eastern Asia. With fragrant flowers, the ability to grow in adverse conditions, and fruit that is eaten by dozens of bird species, autumn olive has been promoted as an ornamental and wildlife plant. 

If so many birds love its fruit, what is the problem with autumn olive? With the potential for a mature plant to produce as many as 66,000 seeds annually, it can quickly become the dominant plant in an area, outcompeting native plants. It also has allelopathic properties. It releases growth-compounds from its roots and other plants that try to establish themselves absorb the chemicals and die. Few insects feed on autumn olive  giving it little value for spring migrating and nesting birds.

Autumn olive. Photo: nps.gov

Three other plants introduced into North America from Asia, Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii), winged euonymus (burning bush) (Euonymus alatus), and Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica), can also become dominant plants in the landscape. They are especially harmful in the forest understory where they shade out native plants and result in a monoculture. And again, they do not support the insects that birds need for their growing chicks. 

Japanese honeysuckle. Photo: hort.uconn.edu/plants

More suitable native plant alternatives for these non-native plants include several of the plants that are included in Menunkatuck’s Plant Sale for the Birds. Winterberry (Ilex verticillata), red chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia), and highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) all have berries that provide food for wildlife with the additional benefit of flowering in May, June, or July, attracting insects that nesting birds can feed their chicks. An alternative to Japanese honeysuckle is trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens), a native vine that is attractive to ruby-throated hummingbirds.

Trumpet honeysuckle. 

Photo (color adjusted): hort.uconn.edu/plants 

Karen Bussolini will discuss more ideas for Landscaping with Native Plants: Healing Our Home Turf at Menunkatuck’s March 13 program. 

(From the March 2013 Newsletter)