Turkey hunters open the spring hunting season Saturday and Lake County is literally awash with wild turkeys. The birds have become so numerous in the county that they are often seen within the city limits of Lakeport and Clearlake.
Thirty years ago it was rare to see a wild turkey in the county but the ideal habitat here has caused a population explosion among the birds. They are one of the most fascinating of all wild birds and even if you”re not a hunter they are a pleasure to watch, especially in the spring when the toms are strutting.
Turkeys almost became extinct throughout the United States in the early 1900s when there were only an estimated 30,000 wild turkeys in the entire country. Conservation practices have increased that number to more than seven million.
California is considered one of the top states for turkey population. Lake County has two species of wild turkeys, the Rio Grande and the Merriam. The most common one is the Rio Grande, which can be found in the lower elevations. The turkeys around Lakeport and Clearlake are Rio Grandes and were originally brought here from Texas. They have buff-colored tips on their tails that easily identify them. The Merriam is a high-country turkey and the only ones in the county are located in the Mendocino National Forest near Hull Mountain. The white tips on their tail feathers and wings easily identify the Merriam. Both species were introduced into the county a number of years ago.
Male turkeys are called toms and can weigh as much as 25 pounds. They are the largest wild bird in Lake County. The females are called hens and are much smaller. An immature tom is called a jake and an immature hen is called a jenny. A jake can be identified from an adult tom by its non-symmetrical tail when the tail is fanned out. The center feathers on a jake are about an inch longer than the rest of the feathers in the tail. The turkey you buy at the local supermarket is a relative of the wild turkey.
With rare exceptions a tom will have what is called a beard that protrudes out from its breast. The beard is actually a set of stiff feathers and grows continually throughout the bird”s life. It can attain a length of 12 inches. Occasionally a hen will also have a beard but it”s normally smaller than a tom”s. The tom also has spurs and only the tom is capable of making a gobble sound.
A wild turkey will have between 5,000-6,000 feathers. The feathers provide a variety of functions, including keeping the turkey warm and dry and allowing it to fly and show off for the opposite sex. The head and upper part of the neck are featherless but it does have some little bumps on the skin. The head of a tom is either bright red, white or blue depending whether he is trying to court a hen. The hen”s feathers are drab colored so as to camouflage her when she is sitting on the nest.
All turkeys roost in trees at night. They fly up to the higher branches just before dark. They will stay in the roost tree until daylight. They have excellent eyesight and can see 300 degrees without moving their head. They are excellent fliers and can run as fast as 20 mph.
The breeding season for turkeys starts in March and continues through May. The tom gobbles, struts and fans out his tail to attract a willing hen. The toms can be very aggressive during the breeding season. Last year a wild tom attacked an elderly gentleman in Lakeport. The man tried to chase the bird off his deck and the gentleman ended up having to go to the hospital.
Most of the flocks are made up of from 10-12 hens, a dominant gobbler and several young jakes. The jakes usually hang on the fringe of the flock, looking for an opportunity to breed with one of the hens when the dominant tom is busy.
During the day hens will readily breed with the tom. They will then go off by themselves and lay one or two eggs in a nest after which they return to the flock. When the hen has laid eight to 10 eggs she leaves the flock for good and incubates the eggs. The chicks are hatched in 28 days. At the age of about 10 days the chicks are capable of flying to the tree and will roost with their mother. A tom will breed with up to 20 hens during the mating season.
In addition to the hunter, the primary predators of adult turkeys are mountain lions, coyotes and golden eagles. A turkey can live as long as 10 years, but most are lucky to survive five years due to predation and disease.
