photo by Greg Hofmann

2/28/2005: Having made it safely past November, one of our local wild turkeys (Melagris gallopavo) decided it was safe to show its neck in public. We've seen these birds on the Reserve before, but with the new camera we get a much better look this time. While wild turkeys are native to North America, there has not been a local species in California since the last ice age. After a few failed tries at establishing a population using farmed birds, in 1950 a successful reintroduction program was begun by the Department of Fish and Game using trapped wild birds from Texas. Since then, thousands of turkeys have been successfully introduced to California as game birds. The most widely distributed subspecies is the Rio Grande, which has adapted well to our oak woodlands.