The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
file photo by William Thomas
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Paramus NJ, Have you seen turkey hens and their poults? Then let us know in the NJ Fish and Wildlife’s Turkey Project’s Wild Turkey Brood Sighting Survey.
This survey information is used as a measure of wild turkey productivity both in New Jersey and nationally as a means of estimating how well turkeys did raising broods each year.
This survey runs from May 15 – September 15, 2022.
photo by William Thomas
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Twp. of Washington NJ, the wild turkey is native to North America and can be found over most of the eastern two-thirds of the U.S. with small pockets along the west coast and in Mexico. Wild turkeys prefer relatively open hardwood and mixed evergreen hardwood forests with scattered openings. Some turkeys can be found in woodlots relatively close to human population centers. Despite their large size, wild turkeys (unlike their domestic relatives) are agile fliers and roost in trees. Wild turkeys are social birds and live in flocks. Wild turkeys are omnivorous and typically forage on the ground for acorns, nuts, seeds, berries, fruits, grasses, roots, insects, and small amphibians and reptiles. Wild Turkeys can be attracted to bird feeders.
Continue reading Wild turkeys are extra aggressive during their breeding season!
the staff of then Ridgewood blog
Paramus NJ, the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife offers webinars to get you ready for spring gobbler season and trout fishing! Yes folks you can learn to call a turkey, its really a thing ! We have had a few run ins with wild turkeys from time to time and this may have come in handy .
Continue reading NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife offers Webinars on “Turkey Calling”
By LISA W. FODERAROFEB. 18, 2016
HILLSDALE, N.J. — In some neighborhoods of this placid New Jersey borough in Bergen County, they are seemingly everywhere — waddling by the dozen in the road, perched on car roofs, pecking at the tires of delivery trucks.
But wild turkeys, which were wiped out in the state by the mid-1800s, put on their most brazen display on Tuesday, when a letter carrier felt trapped in his truck and telephoned his boss for help.
“Hey sarge,” the postmaster said in a 911 call to the Hillsdale Police Department. “You’re not going to believe this, but I got a carrier that’s being attacked by wild turkeys and won’t let him deliver the mail.”
The letter carrier, who was not identified, was inside his truck on Esplanade Drive, surrounded by four or five turkeys, when two officers arrived, according to Capt. Sean Smith of the Police Department. “The first officer attempted to blow the siren and that didn’t work,” he said on Thursday. “Then the other officer got out of his car and ran aggressively toward the turkeys and that did the trick.”
It was just one of the latest skirmishes in suburbia’s wildlife wars. Turkeys have now joined the ranks of raccoons, foxes, coyotes, bears and deer, all of which have both fans and detractors and seem to make headlines with growing frequency.
BY MATTHEW MCGRATH
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
HILLSDALE — Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays postal couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. Now you can add wild turkeys to the list.
A foul-tempered flock of wild turkeys, also known as a rafter, accosted a postal worker Tuesday on Esplanade Drive.
The uninjured mailman sought refuge in his truck while the postmaster called police around 12:10 p.m., Detective William Diedtrich said.
Confrontations between turkeys and people are rare, but in populated areas, where they are not hunted or trapped, the birds have little fear of people.
“We don’t stand our ground and act like predators,” said Paul Curtis, a wildlife-human conflict expert at Cornell University in New York. “They don’t have any negative consequences so, they won’t fly or run off. They don’t see people as a threat.”
Once devastated, wild turkey populations make big comeback
By Douglas Main
In the early 1900s, wild turkeys seemed to be on the road toward extinction, as unregulated hunting and widespread logging had wiped them out over much of their range. In the last few decades, however, the birds have made an incredible recovery, reaching levels near those of their precolonial days.
The birds are now found in virtually all parts of their former territory, and some new places where they hadn’t been previously, said wildlife biologist Thomas Hughes of the National Wild Turkey Federation, an organization that has reintroduced the animals into the wild. They can be found in 49 U.S. states, with the only exception being Alaska, Hughes said. In total, about 7 million wild turkeys live in the United States; prior to 1500, an estimated 10 million turkeys existed, he added.
In some places, the growth of wild turkey populations has been so dramatic it has caused minor problems, said Kelsey Sullivan, a wildlife biologist with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife in Bangor. In Maine, for example, the birds have been known to damage strawberry and blueberry crops. They have also been found rummaging in the fodder of dairy cattle, which they can contaminate with their droppings, Sullivan said. [Gobble, Gobble: 8 Terrific Turkey Facts]
