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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 7, 2018)
8 Wednesday, February 7, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon Tales from a Sisters Naturalist by Jim Anderson Ourd“wild”dturkeysd arednotdsodwild One of those marvelous phone calls came in the other day about “wild turkeys” messing up a Sisters resi- dent’s porch — and I mean really messing it up. There was turkey poop at least an inch thick all over the back porch that fell from turkeys spending the night in pines towering over the home. Turkeys eat; turkeys poop. That’s just the way it is. And there’s a lot of ’em here in Sisters Country. The big reason the tur- keys perch over that poor woman’s home is that her neighbor feeds them. That’s what turkeys do: eat, congre- gate, and be happy. The whole turkey thing got started because some- one thought they should be “wild” so they could be hunted, an idea that gave rise earlier to the National Wild Turkey Federation and their slogan: “The Conservation of the Wild Turkey and the preservation of our hunting heritage.” Whoopee! But where did they get the wild turkeys to hunt? From what I can find search- ing the literature, they are Galliformes — birds native to North America. But, when I dug deeper I ran into the domestic turkey that origi- nated in Mexico and appar- ently another came upon the scene from Levant (Eastern Mediterranean). A word (or two) about Galliformes: The name describes a biological order of heavy-bodied ground- feeding birds that includes turkeys, grouse, chickens, New and Old World quail, ptarmigan, partridge, chukar, pheasant, and jungle fowl. All in all, there’s about 290 species of them, one or more of which are found in essen- tially every part of the world and all hunted by humans. The turkeys wandering all over Sisters Country pooping on residents’ back porches originally came from Texas, via The Swamp/Willamette Valley. Since 1961, more than 10,000 of them have been transplanted to loca- tions all over Oregon, the result of moving nuisance turkeys to other parts of the state (where they become a new nuisance). Turkey management is directed by Oregon’s Wild Turkey Management Plan adopted by ODFW in 2004. The overabundance of turkeys over in The Swamp becomes a pestiferous mess to operators of feed-lots. Turkey poop and cow food do not mix. When turkeys reach the point where there are more of them than cows something’s got to give, and the turkeys are hauled off. 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Baby turkeys (known as poults) are subject to preda- tion by great horned owls, red-tailed hawks, domes- tic cats and dogs, and of all things, ants. Ants are like coyotes; they never pass up free food, and wildlife biolo- gists tell us ants on the prowl for food are capable of tear- ing a newly hatched poult apart and hauling it back to their nest in small chunks. Can you imagine the cele- bration in an ant colony when AUTO ACCIDENT? Quick and affordable relief. Auto accidents, workman’s comp. accepted. Three Sisters Chiropractic & Pain Management Dr. Inice Gough, DC, CCT, CCST 541.549.3583 one comes home smelling of turkey guts? And as it is with mule deer in Sisters Country, homeowners have to put up with those turkeys, which is especially irksome if said homeowner is trying to grow a garden. The home- owner who started this dis- cussion watches them sail over her home and come to perch right over her porch — because her neighbor feeds them. Not good! Just like with mule deer, turkeys DO NOT NEED TO BE FED. Stated another way, if you’re going to feed wild birds, please limit it to song birds and quail and let it go at that. According to ODFW, tur- key hunting is at its prime in Oregon, making this a great time to land the fowl. But PLEASE, not in your back- yard (that’s against the law). Fifth generation Oregonian with roots in Reedsport, Kerry Tymchuk has been referred to as “Oregon’s living history master storyteller.” At the helm of the Oregon Historical Society (OHS) as executive director since 2011, Tymchuk breathed life back into an ailing OHS. He doesn’t believe that history consists of a bunch of dusty relics behind glass. In his pre- sentation, “Oregon History Show and Tell,” on Tuesday, February 20, 7 p.m., at FivePine Conference Center, he will pull out actual pieces of Oregon history from his “trunk of treasures” and bring them to life with his entertain- ing stories. He wants people to be able to hold history in their hands. (“Fireside Stories on tap in Sisters,” page 11.) One of the keys to Tymchuk’s success at OHS is his wide circle of friends and acquaintances. He knows peo- ple from every corner of the state as a result of spending 12 years as Oregon chief of staff See HISTORY on page 24 At Sweeney we bring ng Excellent Service e s! and a Smile with us! Call us for any Plumbing Emergency! 541-549-4349 49 9 LOCAL. RELIABLE. PROFESSIONAL. SIONAL 260 N. N Pine St St., Sisters Licensed / Bonded / Insured / CCB#87587 All The Bells & Whistles Computerized || LCD Display || Needle Threader || Automatic thread cutter Needle stop up/down || 310 stitch patterns, including 84 decorative stitches EverSewn Sparrow 30 ... $399 Classes begin this week! 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