Tag: wild turkey

Dust Baths

The photo above (by Rajesh Kalra) shows a house sparrow in the throes of a dust bath. By rolling, wiggling, and scooping up dust with its wings, the bird covers itself with dust, then shakes vigorously to fling the dust in all directions. You can see a dust bathing bird in action here. It’s believed that dust bathing helps to clean dirt and excess oil from feathers and skin, and to suppress parasites. Without this kind of maintenance the bird’s health would suffer and flight efficiency would decline. Dust bathing is a common behavior in many birds.

Once the bath is finished and the bird is gone, the evidence remains in the form of body-sized hollows. Dust baths sometimes appear as roughly circular cleared spaces surrounded by vegetation, as in the photo below. The diameter of the sandy hollow (15 inches) strongly suggests turkey.

Sometimes feathers provide definitive evidence of who the dust bather was. The dust bath in the next photo is ornamented with a few body feathers belonging to a ruffed grouse. There’s also a partial track below the feather. At roughly 8 inches across, this dust bath was the right size for a grouse. The bird had chosen an inactive ant mound, and the finely processed soil was a perfect medium for a good cleansing thrash.

In the next photo you see a dust bath that holds definitive evidence of the bather. A turkey tail feather lies on the lower left side, and a clear track sits in the center. Finding tracks as good as this one is unusual, because they are generally obscured as the bird shakes the soil off. The whole area was large, about three feet across, but the hollow made by the turkey’s body was about 18 inches across.

Some bathing spots don’t seem very enticing. The grouse dust bath shown below was located in a gravel road and couldn’t have been very comfortable. The hard surface must have yielded very little dust, so I wonder how much benefit the bird’s effort yielded. Maybe it was the best site the grouse could find.

Birds aren’t the only creatures that take dust baths. Large herbivores such as bison and elk often roll and wiggle in dusty spots, and small rodents are frequent dust bathers. Rabbits and cottontails also enjoy an occasional roll in the dirt. The next photo shows a snowshoe hare dust bath. Rear tracks show as sets of claw marks on the left and indistinct shapes on the right.

Another mammal that likes to roll in sand or soil is the otter. The animal that made the roll shown in the photo below had just come out of the water, and part of its motivation was to dry its fur. The sand bath also probably helped to clean the otter’s fur and remove excess oil. You can see flattened areas where the sand was pressed down by the otter’s body, and there are some tail marks on the left. The disorganized collection of tracks in the center is interesting. It looks to me like the animal shook itself vigorously to throw the sand off, lifting and placing its feet several times in the process. It then proceeded on its way toward the top of the frame.

Dry, loose substrates are preferred for dust bathing. Dusty roads or trails, sandy deposits, fine humus, and decomposed logs are likely places to find dust baths. Small birds and mammals often choose hidden locations for their hygienic activities. Turkeys usually establish dust baths in open sites where escape is not hindered by obstacles. But wherever you find them, you should check out any strangely hollowed or cleared spots you come upon. You might have found the location of a seldom seen part of a wild creature’s life.

Wild Turkeys

It’s a familiar sight these days: a flock of wild turkeys foraging in a distant field. Wild turkey populations have rebounded from a low point in the early twentieth century (caused by overhunting and habitat loss), and the birds have successfully reoccupied and even expanded their original range.

Turkeys spend lots of time on the ground, so we’re likely to see tracks as well as other evidence of their activities. With widths of 4 to 5 1/2 inches, turkey prints are too large to be mistaken for most other birds, and they also differ in structure from all but a few. The turkey track in the photo below has three forward-pointing toes which come together at a metatarsal pad. But unlike the tracks of birds like robins and sparrows there is no backward-pointing toe touching the ground for its whole length. Instead, turkeys may (more on the uncertainty in the next paragraph) have a spur situated higher up on the back of the leg. If you look in the lower part of the photo between the round impression of the metatarsal pad and the multicolored stone you’ll see the mark made by the spur. Because the spur indentation is angled to the right side we know that the track in the photo was made by the left foot. Canada geese differ from turkeys in having webbed feet and outer toes which curve inward. The three forward-pointing toes of the great blue heron can sometimes resemble those of the turkey, but instead of a spur the heron–like the robin–has a backward-pointing toe that usually touches the ground for its whole length and is almost as long as the other three.

Male turkeys are larger than females, so their tracks fall in the upper part of the size range. Another difference between the tracks of males and females is the development of the spur. Both sexes are born with small spur buttons on their legs, but the spurs of tom turkeys grow vigorously in the first few years of the bird’s life. In females the spur initials may develop into smaller spurs, or they may not grow at all. The size of the track in the photo–5 1/8 inches in width–plus the robustness of the spur indentation indicates that it was made by a male turkey.

In the next photo you can see two prints which measured 4 3/8 and 4 1/2 inches in width and lacked spur marks, indicating that they were made by a hen turkey. Even though there aren’t any spur marks it’s easy to tell left from right tracks, because the outer toe of a turkey is longer than the inner toe. In the track at the lower left the toe which points straight up is larger than the one which points to the right and slightly downward, so it’s a left print. At the upper right there’s a right track, with a larger outer toe (the one angled to the right) and a smaller inner toe (pointing upward and a little to the left). But beware: these differences are most clearly expressed on level, moderately firm substrates at modest speeds, and may not be as reliable under other conditions.

Spring is mating season for turkeys, so in addition to tracks you may find signs of the mating displays of the gobblers–strange undulating grooves like the ones in the next photo. These marks were made by the tips of the wing feathers as a tom turkey moved from upper right to lower left with its wings arched out and down. It left a few tracks at the lower left. And my dog added a few prints of his own to the composition.

A displaying turkey (shown in the photo below) is an amazing sight. In addition to spreading and dragging its wings, the gobbler fans out its tail, erects its body feathers, and shows off the engorged flesh on its head and neck. Several strutting toms may jostle around each other while the hens stand nearby observing and assessing. Those which pass muster will be able to mate, and in a month or so their offspring will begin to move around under the protection of their mother.

Birds are meticulous about caring for their feathers, and one way they do this is by taking sand or dust baths. Turkeys are no exception. A turkey in need of a dust bath seeks out a patch of dry soil and scrapes out a depression with its feet. It then lowers itself to the ground and rolls from side to side using its wings to throw dust over its body. At the same time the bird is fluffing its body feathers, spreading its tail, and even rubbing its head in the soil. When sufficiently coated with dust the bird rises and shakes itself off. It’s thought that dust bathing removes excess oil from the feathers and kills parasites. Good dust bathing areas are used repeatedly, leaving hollows like the one in the photo below. Feathers or scat are sometimes found around bathing sites, but the main species identifier is size. Turkey dust baths are usually more than a foot in diameter, while those of grouse or pheasants measure less than a foot.

Turkeys are one of those creatures that have returned to our northeastern forests after a long absence, and they’re well adapted to our habitats. They eat a wide range of foods, from seeds and nuts to insects and small vertebrates. They are strong fliers and powerful runners, and they are notoriously wary of potential danger. Beyond the occasional distant sightings we’re more likely to see tracks and sign than the birds themselves. But the occasional window into their lives is always a welcome find.