{"id":29082,"date":"2020-06-28T09:51:42","date_gmt":"2020-06-28T16:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=29082"},"modified":"2020-06-28T09:51:42","modified_gmt":"2020-06-28T16:51:42","slug":"wild-turkey-presence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=29082","title":{"rendered":"Wild Turkey presence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>When I was a child on the shore of Kootenay Lake, there were no Wild Turkeys to be seen.<\/p>\n<p>Returning to the lakeshore in retirement, I was surprised to see a few. Since that time, the proliferation of turkeys is probably satisfying only to coyotes.<\/p>\n<p>Why are they here? Apparently they were introduced in the states of Washington and Idaho as a way to satisfy hunters. Sigh&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>A Washington <a href=\"https:\/\/wdfw.wa.gov\/species-habitats\/species\/meleagris-gallopavo\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">website<\/a>\u00a0states: &#8220;wild turkeys &#8230; were introduced to Washington beginning in the early twentieth century.&#8221; These turkeys apparently did not head north. However, an Idaho <a href=\"https:\/\/idfg.idaho.gov\/hunt\/turkey\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">website<\/a> tells us that: &#8220;Wild turkey populations have taken off in Idaho since Idaho Fish and Game first introduced them in the 1960s.&#8221; It is a portion of this plantation that seems to have sought refuge around Kootenay Lake, for a few were apparently seen around Salmo later in that decade.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>However, the purpose of this posting is merely to record a milestone in our history of the Wild Turkey. By an accident of the preservation of ephemera, I have a page from the BC Naturalist from the Spring of 1987 (Vol. 25, No. 1, p. 6) that notes: &#8220;West Kootenay Naturalists were excited to find two WILD TURKEYS near Nelson on 27 December.&#8221;<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-29085\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/wildturkey1987s.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This event, over thirty years ago, was an early stage in our turkey infestation, all apparently a consequence of Idaho&#8217;s introduction.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-28800\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/wildturkey200523as_DMF.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; When I was a child on the shore of Kootenay Lake, there were no Wild Turkeys to be seen. Returning to the lakeshore in retirement, I was surprised to see a few. Since that time, the proliferation of turkeys &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=29082\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29082"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29101,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29082\/revisions\/29101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}