Hi Stewart,

I enjoyed your posting about the Wild Turkey. Ben Franklin liked it so well that he proposed it as the national bird -- or so the story goes. Actually, I rather like the Wild Turkey, too, it runs fast, flies low, and I'm always amazed at how so big a bird can vanish so suddenly when it decides to disappear. Of course, it isn't native to Washington, but then neither are Mountain Quail in Western Washington, Chukar, Ring-necked Pheasant, Gray Partridge, California Quail, or Northern Bobwhite. And it's a pity the Sky Lark isn't thriving in Washington any longer. I admit it, I like all these birds.

But I'd agree to banish Wild Turkeys to their native eastern habitats if ranchers would agree to stop cattle grazing, which has caused far more change to western ecosystems than the big birds. And maybe they could also stop destroying the shrub-steppe to plant and irrigate non-native crops. Far worse than Wild Turkeys, I think.

Paul Webster
Seattle
paul.websterATcomcast.net
----- Original Message -----
From: Stewart Wechsler
To: Bob Flores ; Tweeters ; Inland Birds
Sent: Sunday, September 04, 2005 4:33 PM
Subject: RE: [Tweeters] Lyons Ferry..." wild turkey!" - !?



Others have heard this before. Some may not know that the Wild Turkey is an introduced species in Washington and west of the rocky Mountains and likely functions like any introduced species by disturbing the ecological balance. It is most likely in the process negatively impacting, and displacing a diversity of native species in different kingdoms (not including Saudi Arabia, as far as I'm aware) and changing ecosystems that our native species had been adapted to. Though it is certainly an exciting bird to see, it disturbs me when an exclamation point is added to sightings of the "Giant Starlings" as I prefer to call them. The exclamation point seems to imply a "good" sighting.

Stewart Wechsler
Ecological Consulting
West Seattle
206 932-7225
ecostewart at quidnunc.net

-Advice on the most site-appropriate native plants
and how to enhance habitat for the maximum diversity
of plants and animals
-Educational programs, nature walks and field trips
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