Subject: [Tweeters] King County Wild Turkey Occurrence
Date: May 30 10:12:53 2009
From: Doug Schonewald - dschone8 at donobi.net


Tweets,

Since I am an eastsider and my children and grandchildren are westsiders we
make many trips to the westside to visit and spoil grandchildren. My
recollection is that we have seen Wild Turkeys along I-90 on the upper
Snoqualmie River corridor 4 times. Three sightings were of single birds (all
toms) and one sighting was of 4 birds (1 tom and 3 hens). One of the single
sightings was in fall (October I think) and the others were all in spring
(April and/or May). All sightings were since 2005.
I did not stop along the freeway to study any of these birds, but must
assume by the location that they are spill-overs from the transplanted
population in Kittitas County.
In support of this theory we have seen many Wild Turkeys along the highway,
and off the highway, on the Kittitas side of Snoqualmie Pass, some within a
few miles of the pass. My guess would be several dozen in the last 4-5
years. I think it is logical to suppose that these birds will, and indeed
have, spilled over into King County. Whether there is a viable breeding
population is another question.
Whether they are 'countable' is also conjecture. I counted them in my King
County List since my belief is they came from a viable and multiplying
population.
These birds are very resilient, and while we often think of them as lowland
species, we have seen literally hundreds at elevations nearing 7,500' in the
Clockum and Teanaway areas. So the elevation of the passes are going to be
of little consequence to these birds as their populations expand.
Another observation that I have had (admittedly unproven scientifically) is
that as the Wild Turkey population rises the Dusky/Sooty Grouse populations
decrease, often dramatically. Where we once saw many Dusky/Sooty types in
the Clockum area between Ellensburg and Wenatchee, we now are hard pressed
to find even a few. Not a good trade off, and I am concerned that Wild
Turkeys may eventually become the next House Sparrow or European Starling of
the west. As the game department continues to artificially expand
populations and the bird proliferate and disperse into new areas I am afraid
that endemic species will suffer badly.

Enough said on that topic

Cheers

Doug Schonewald
Moses Lake, WA