HI Tweeter:
I read through an interesting article in today's Bremerton Sun about
the status of Wild Turkeys in WA. To quote from the article: "Merriam's
turkeys are found primarily in Ferry,Stevens and Pend Oreille counties as
well as in Klickitat and a portion of Skamania County. Stevens and
Klickitat counties continue to be the hotspots for Merriam's subspecies,
which like the mix of scrub and forest, burns and clearcuts. Rio Grande's,
which like the more open terrain ranging from river breaks to stubble
fields, can be found in much of the rest of Eastern Washington, especially
the river valleys in Lincoln, Columbia and Garfield counties. The Eastern
subspecies has expanded in Western WA throughout much of Clark, Cowlitz,
Grays Harbor,Lewis, mason,Pacific,Thurston andWahkiakum counties." I
article goes on to say:" About 100 Eastern-strain turkeys are being
imported from Iowa each year and released in Western WA."
I think this explains the recent increase of sightings of turkeys in
Western WA.
Sincerely

Ian Paulsen
Bainbridge Is., WA
ipaulsen at linknet.kitsap.lib.wa.us
"Rallidae all the way"