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Picture of the day -
December 31, 2005
Wild Turkeys On The Blue Ridge Parkway
The wild turkey is the largest and most popular game bird in North America,
which almost led to its demise as a species due to over-hunting and the loss of
habitat. When the first Europeans came ashore on what is now the American
east coast, they discovered a wilderness land replete with wild game - there
were deer, bear, rabbits, quail, ducks, geese, grouse, squirrels and lots more
most everywhere they looked!
The explorers soon discovered the wild turkey since the local "Indians" used it
as a primary source of food. Most everyone knows that the "Indians" were
mislabeled due to history's most famous navigation error, but few know that
the wild turkey was misnamed in error as well. When the first wild turkeys were
taken back to England, the British people thought they were birds known to live in
the country of Turkey - so they called them turkeys. Of course they turned out to
be completely different birds, but the name stuck.
The wild turkey quickly became the favorite game bird of the colonists. In fact,
if Benjamin Franklin had had his way, the
bald eagle wouldn't be our
national symbol - it would be the wild turkey instead! The settlers' appetites
for wild turkey was enormous, and thousands of them ended up on dinner tables
each year.
At the same time, the country was growing westward and much of the mature forest
land was being cleared away - which of course destroyed lots of essential wild
turkey habitat in the process. These two factors combined to place the very
existence of the wild turkey in jeopardy and for a while they were in real
danger of becoming extinct.
But thanks to strict controls on turkey hunting and a very successful
conservation campaign, the wild turkey is now doing extremely well. Today,
flocks of these magnificent birds can be seen in rural areas all across the
nation. My wife and I found the flock of wild turkeys featured in today's
picture as they were strutting across a small open field beside the
Blue Ridge Parkway
near Blowing Rock, North Carolina.
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