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Patrick Wightman

@wildturkeynerd

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NWTF National Director of Wild Turkey Research and Science

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This Turkey Tuesday is about gobbling, which is an activity toms do all year long – including during fall. The other day, I was scrolling through cell camera images and saw a series that included several toms, and one image clearly showed a tom gobbling. That took me back decades to when I was deer hunting as a child and had a tom gobbling his head off most of the afternoon while I sat hoping (fruitlessly) to see a deer. So, what prompts a tom to gobble, sometimes quite a bit, during the fall? Well, ebbs and flows in testosterone result in some toms getting fired up enough in fall to start gobbling, particularly when around other toms. Unlike during spring when testosterone levels get high enough for toms to gobble daily, during fall you typically see one bird in a flock gobble whereas others do not. You’ll also see certain toms in a flock gobble at times but there may be no consistency to who gobbles and when. Regardless, gobbling around other toms in the same flock during fall is primarily a way to assert dominance and challenge other flock members. We think of spring as a time when toms focus on dominance, but the battles to establish dominance occur throughout fall and winter in the flocks we’re seeing. The take home is gobbling during the fall is a behavior that gets the ball rolling on seeing who will stand at the top of the dominance ladder come spring. Anyone been seeing or hearing toms gobble? Pic by @tommartineauimages #wildturkey #wildturkeys #fall #gobblegobble #gobble

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This Turkey Tuesday is about the feathers on a wild turkey’s head. Although toms have little feathering on their head and neck, hens have pronounced feathers in these areas that have important functions. Wild turkeys, like many birds, have bristle and specialized filoplume feathers that provide protection, sensory functions, communication, and camouflage. These feathers around the eyes help block debris, and coupled with multiple eyelids, keep the eyes clear – and vision is critical to a hen’s survival. Filoplumes also act as sensors of sort, helping the bird detect movement, changes in air flow, and vibrations – corpuscles at the base of the feathers basically allow the bird to “feel” changes in the environment around the head. It’s also believed that wild turkeys recognize each other at least partially from the appearance of their head, so differences in feather patterns serve as a form of communication and individual recognition. Lastly, feathering on the head of a hen helps her blend into the environment which is particularly important when she’s incubating. The take home is the feathers on a hen’s head serve important functions that influence many aspects of her life. Pic by Dale Kauzlaric #wildturkey #wildturkeys #feather #turkey #feathers

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This Turkey Tuesday is about agricultural crops. With fall right around the corner, fields of grain crops become increasingly important to wild turkeys throughout broad portions of their range. These grains provide an important source of forage starting in fall and lasting well into winter, whether it be standing crops ready for harvest or waste grain left on the ground after harvest. Agricultural grains such as corn, sorghum, soybeans, and wheat offer turkeys carbohydrates that serve as an energy source, and proteins that support molting and growth of juvenile birds still building muscle mass. These grains also provide a critical source of fats, and turkeys steadily build fat reserves throughout fall to help them withstand harsh winter weather conditions. In fact, research in agricultural landscapes has shown that waste grains dominate fall and winter diets and provide nearly all energy requirements for turkeys during winter. This reality is why the availability of grains has such an impact on wild turkey movements during fall and winter, as they key in on areas where they can efficiently consume high energy foods. As farming practices continue to evolve and technology allows increasingly efficient harvest of grains, it will likely become more challenging for turkeys living in agricultural landscapes, which places more importance on optimizing quality of other vegetative communities on the landscape. The take home is agricultural grains are important food sources for wild turkeys throughout much of their range, particularly as we transition into fall and winter. Pic by @darcydphotography #wildturkey #wildturkeys #turkeyhunting #agriculture #crop

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This Turkey Tuesday is about the benefits of occupying the high ground. Wild turkeys roost on elevated perches at night as a way to avoid predators, but the use of above-ground perches is not a behavior restricted to nighttime. For instance, perching above ground to preen allows the bird to focus entirely on self-maintenance rather than having to constantly scan for danger. Alternatively, when turkeys feel threatened or are uncertain about a potential nearby threat, they may fly up to perch where they have an expanded field of view. This strategy makes sense, because perching above ground allows the bird to see farther, and since the bird has already examined the potential for danger from ground-level, perching offers a much-improved understanding of what the playing field looks like on the ground. Ongoing research continues to show that many behaviors in wild turkeys vary dramatically from one individual to the next, and in my own experience, use of perches is one. I once radio-tracked a hen that would fly up to roost during the day on almost a daily basis, and rather than loafing on the ground during the day, she would roost as she would at night. I also once hunted a tom that folded the strategy of using perches into his routine, and it served him well based on my failures to get him within gun range. Each time we worked him towards us, he’d get within ~ 75 yards before flying up to perch above ground. From there, he’d walk around in the tree, scan the ground all around us, and even hop into adjacent trees to improve his field of view. He’d eventually pick us out and fly down in the opposite direction before leaving the area. The take home is the use of perches during the day is a strategy that offers wild turkeys ways to improve their perspective on potential dangers on the ground. Pic by Monte Loomis. #wildturkey #wildturkeys #turkey #turkeyhunting #perch

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This Turkey Tuesday is about avian pox, which is the most common disease affecting wild turkeys. Avian pox is caused by a strain of avipoxvirus and there are 2 forms of the disease that include a dry and wet form. The wet form affects the bird’s mucous membranes in the upper respiratory and gastrointestinal systems, but the dry form is what most of us see when we encounter birds suffering from avian pox. That is, infected birds with wart-like growths on the head, neck, and legs. In some cases, a bird may only have a few small lesions that heal and slough off in a few weeks, so the condition resolves itself. But in more severe cases, like the bird in this image, the lesions become large and cover much of the head, often interfering with vision and the bird’s ability to feed, and sometimes contributing to mortality. Avian pox is spread by mosquitoes and outbreaks are more common during hot months when mosquitoes are abundant. The virus is also highly transmissible, so when one bird becomes infected it’s likely other birds will as well – this is one reason why concentrating birds around feeders can be problematic, as the virus can be easily spread. The impact that avian pox has on wild turkeys at a population level is unclear and is difficult to determine precisely, although ongoing work shows that many dead birds who test positive for avian pox also test positive for other diseases. The take home is avian pox is a common disease affecting wild turkeys, but the severity of the infection varies considerably across individuals. Pic by Gregory Cowles. #wildturkey #wildturkeys #turkey #turkeyhunting #disease

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This Turkey Tuesday is about the importance of water to wild turkeys. With the brutal heat of summer continuing in many areas, wild turkeys will seek sources of water within their home ranges to satisfy their water requirements. Wild turkeys need about 32 ounces of water daily and have adapted ways of obtaining water that allow them to live in some hot, difficult conditions. For instance, they extract water from succulent vegetation and insects, and they also will obtain water from dew that forms on vegetation overnight and into early morning. But at this time of year, it’s not uncommon to see turkeys drink directly from water sources such as lakes, ponds, and even puddles. In fact, drinking from water sources is something that’s part of a bird’s daily routine as you move into dry, arid areas of the species’ range, such as the southern Plains and northern Mexico. Turkeys have an interesting way of drinking that involves them scooping water into their beaks and then tilting their head slightly, so gravity carries the water down the esophagus. This efficient way of drinking allows turkeys to drink while remaining vigilant, and they can even drink while they walk through water. The take home is access to free water becomes particularly important to wild turkeys during extreme temperatures when just like us, they’re finding ways to beat the heat. Pic by Monte Loomis #wildturkey #wildturkeys #water #heat #summer

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This Turkey Tuesday is about how wild turkeys are able to gobble up their food. If you’ve ever watched turkeys feed, it’s a constant process of scanning potential food items, grabbing them, and keeping an eye out for danger. Turkeys are known to feed on >1000 food items, and they have a digestive system that allows them to perfectly “gobble and go”. Once the food item is grabbed, it’s swallowed and heads to the crop which is located outside the body cavity at the base of the neck. The crop allows the bird to store food, which allows the bird to constantly feed and remain vigilant – it’s also particularly valuable at night while the bird is roosted – this is why you’ll often see turkeys feed intensively just before going to roost, as they can fill up the crop and then digest food all night. Food leaves the crop and goes to the proventriculus, where digestive fluids and acids are present, and then moves on to the gizzard – a large, muscular organ called the ventriculus. Turkeys don’t have teeth obviously, so they need a way to digest hard food items. To make this work, they consume small stones and grit that remain in the gizzard. These stones, combined with the extremely acidic environment within the gizzard, allow the bird to “chew” food items and grind them so they can be passed further into the digestive system. The 2nd image is one I posted several years ago showing a gizzard with a marble in it, and you can clearly see the stones inside the gizzard. The take home is wild turkeys have evolved an efficient digestive system that allows them to feed constantly, store food, and breakdown tough to digest food items with ease. Pic of hen by Sara Day. #wildturkey #wildturkeys #turkey #feeding #turkeyhunting

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This Turkey Tuesday is about summer brood surveys, which are used by many states to infer annual reproductive success. If you’re a turkey hunter, you may live in a state where the state wildlife agency asks you to participate in brood surveys during summer, wherein you’re asked to record sightings of wild turkeys. These surveys typically run from June through August depending on where you live, and although these surveys are referred to as “brood surveys”, they really are much broader than that. That’s because agencies usually ask us to record hens with poults, hens without poults, the relative size of poults, and even toms. So why do agencies ask us to help collect this information? Well, these surveys can be conducted across the geographic extent of a state, whereas intensive field studies where birds are marked and their reproductive success measured cannot. More specifically, the poults observed per hen (poult-per-hen ratio) give a broad assessment of productivity that spring/summer, and the proportion of hens observed with a brood gives a metric of nest success. Likewise, the poults observed per brood provide an index of poult survival, and tracking relative sizes of poults within broods helps agencies infer hatching dates across broad spatial extents within and across states. Collectively, when evaluated through time, these data give agencies insight into population trends. In fact, summer brood survey data have been used to predict total spring harvest and the percentage of jakes in the next spring’s harvest. So, the next time you’re asked to consider participating in summer brood surveys, give it a shot and see whether you can offer useful information from your neck of the woods. The take home is summer brood surveys, which are now being standardized across many states, offer a powerful tool to track trends in wild turkey populations. Pic by Ali Seber #wildturkey #wildturkeys #brood #turkeyhunting #summer

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This Turkey Tuesday is about an activity that wild turkeys partake in every day – preening. Preening is an important maintenance behavior that sees the bird use their beaks to arrange, clean, and oil feathers by spreading secretions from the uropygial gland across the feathers. The uropygial gland is located at the base of the tail and produces oily secretions that when distributed on the feathers, help them repel water. If you look closely at a turkey that’s preening, you’ll see that the bird actually pulls the feathers through their beak. This action aligns and forces the barbs that grow from the rachis (shaft) of the feather, and the barbules that grow from the barbs to interlock – kind of like a zipper. This consistent realignment of the structures that comprise the feather ensures that the feather remains rigid, and by preening consistently on a daily basis – the bird ensures that the feathers provide waterproofing and insulation. In fact, preening is so important that many birds will spend a significant portion of their day dedicated to this self-maintenance behavior. If you watch turkeys preen, you’ll also likely notice that this behavior signals a bird that is calm and content – they are less focused on being alert and more focused on taking time to maintain themselves. Hence, if you see a bird preening, it is a clear signal that the bird feels safe. The take home is preening is an important self-maintenance behavior in the wild turkey world that ensures the integrity and function of the bird’s feathers. Pic by Monte Loomis #wildturkey #wildturkeys #feathers #maintenance #turkeyhunting

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Osceola hen with a young brood of poults. Yes that date is correct. Talk about a late hatch!
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#chasingfloridaoutdoors #osceola #poults #turkeysfortomorrow #thefuture

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This Turkey Tuesday is about finding a cool place to hang out. Where I live, the temperatures have been brutal and when outside, you’re figuring out a way to stay cool – or at least, cooler. The importance of navigating around extreme summer temperatures has been well documented in the gamebird world, and wild turkeys are no exception when it comes to finding ways to beat the heat. Because broods are actively growing and require early successional, low-growing vegetation that is often in open areas exposed to sun, they often have to balance the need to use quality foraging areas with also needing to find cooler areas within their home ranges. Research has shown that broods strike a balance, wherein they forage at locations with abundant insects and appropriate vegetation heights, but then loaf in areas that are cooler. In fact, hens with broods are much more likely to use these cooler locations than hens without broods. In many cases, these cooler locations are hardwood stands, places where shade and air flow combine to offer reduced temperatures, and particularly riparian zones where water is also available. The take home is the ability to beat the heat is an important consideration for wild turkeys in summer, particularly for broods trying to balance access to quality foraging areas with staying cool. Pic by Jami Lindler #wildturkey #wildturkeys #summer #heat #hardwood

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