The Mysterious Egg Caper

 

 

From the trail camera is a curious couple of photos of a turkey hen with an egg in her mouth.

What gives?

So I sent-off an email to a certified wildlife biologist at the University. 

Hiya Jamie...   From the trail camera is a puzzler.  Why would a turkey hen be moving an egg?  I cannot imagine she could get her beak around an intact egg.  But I'm happy to be wrong on that. Or is this some sort of predatory behavior?  Thanks, as always, for any insights.  Tom 

To which she replied.

Hi Tom,  You always have the most interesting trail camera photos!  From my understanding, hen turkeys do not relocate viable eggs.  I believe that this is a hen removing an egg from the nest that was depredated to avoid attracting additional predators to the remaining eggs.  Predators like ground squirrels and crows may puncture an egg and consume the insides.  While turkey hunting this year, I came across a turkey egg right in the middle of a trail (see attached), this was probably a similar scenario, or a predator carried it this far.  This looks like a crow, or another bird used its beak to pierce the shell.  Starting to see quite a few broods of turkey poults, hopefully you are, too.    Cheers,  Jamie

The plot thickens.  Jamie forwarded the email chain to a colleague for further discussion.

Hi Chris,  I hope you are doing well!  Below is an email I received from a landowner as well as my reply.  It got me thinking and I'm curious if you have any other plausible explanations for the hen turkey with an egg in her mouth.  Have you documented any turkey nest predation by turkeys?   During my master's research, I did have a turkey depredate a grassland bird nest and I know of at least one grouse nest depredated by a turkey... all opportunistically, I'm sure.   I'd appreciate any thoughts you may have.  Have a great week!   Jamie 

And the response from Chris.

Hi Jamie,   Good to hear from you. Things are going well here. I hope you’re enjoying your summer thus far!   Well…this isn’t something you come across every day! I haven’t knowingly encountered an instance where a turkey has eaten an egg, although I have suspected it. I’m aware of colleagues in other states that have attributed egg loss to turkeys on occasion, but none to my knowledge have photos of a bird carrying an egg. I did come across one wildlife photographer who was able to document a similar occurrence and included it in a blog post (https://www.robertgroosphotography.com/home/the-egg-bandit).     Turkeys are very opportunistic. And while eggs are not part of their normal diet, they are eaten on (relatively) rare occasion. I think it most likely occurs when a bird comes across an abandoned nest; or in the case of a hen, if she is bumped off a nest and the eggs are partially eaten by a predator, she may return and consume the remaining egg(s) since they are highly nutritious – which could be especially valuable if she decided to renest. However, I don’t believe that turkeys are actively hunting for eggs, whether it be that of other turkeys or other ground-nesting birds (which comes up way too often in discussions on ruffed grouse). Hope this is helpful.   Cheers,  Chris

So there you have it.  A possibly opportunistic turkey keeping-up with housekeeping around the nest.

Never a dull moment around here and an opportunity to learn something new.

Friday Music

On July 2nd, the Continental Congress voted in favor of independence.  

 A couple of days later its delegates to the Congress  adopted the Declaration of Independence - a historic document drafted by Thomas Jefferson. 

From 1776 until the present day, July 4th has been celebrated as the birth of American independence.  

To celebrate the holiday here is American roots-rocker Dave Alvin having a really good time singing an original of his with David Hidalgo, Flaco Jimenez, Pete Sears, Max Baca and Los Cenzontles at the benefit for Los Cenzontles Cultural Arts Academy at the home of Robert Mailer Anderson and Nicola Miner, San Francisco, February 16, 2017,

4th of July.....

Wildflower Blooms

Spring has been cooler and late this year; consequently this forb is about 2 to 3 weeks delayed.  From our walk this morning there was Penstemon digitalis - commonly known as Smooth Penstemon.

A member of the snapdragon family this showy native to the prairie is also called foxglove or beardtongue.  Native Americans and folk-healers have made use of this plant for medicinal purposes for both people and animals.   

On our pollinator habitat this is the first species to materialize in large quantities.  And there is an abundance of this blooming beauty. Acres upon acres of the stuff.  This flower appears during late spring or early summer for about a month and then it’s gone.  

Long-tongued bees, including honeybees, bumblebees, miner bees, butterflies, Sphinx moths, and hummingbirds favor this plant.  The name Beardtongue is a consequence of the hairy reproductive parts found within the flower.

New Eyes

You're probably wondering why this guy is  smiling.

It's because after wearing vision-correcting eyeglasses since the fifth grade he's driving his Mustang while wearing a pair of uncorrected sunglasses that set him back a $1.50. 

Since I retired my annual visit to the eye doc has included monitoring the progression of cataracts that have conspired to degrade my vision.  Cataracts are a clouding of the natural lens of the eye, leading to blurred vision, glare, and eventual vision loss. This spring's routine visit resulted in sufficient advancement of the condition to do something about it.

I finally got my chance to get my eyes fixed.  Two visits, one week apart, to the Eye Clinic in Green Bay.   

Cataract surgery removes the cloudy lens and replaces it with a clear artificial intraocular lens (IOL).  And for me it opened up a world where everything is clearer, brighter and more colorful.  I didn't know what I was missing.

This is an outpatient procedure performed under local anesthesia with sedation (you’re awake but relaxed).  Most commonly it is performed with phacoemulsification (ultrasound to break up the lens), followed by IOL insertion.  Truthfully, the prep and recovery took up most of the time.  The procedure itself took all of ten minutes and required no eye drops in the follow-up care. 

By all outward appearances things were busy at the clinic.  Inquiring of the surgical staff I learned that there were four operating rooms and two surgeons performing, respectively, approximately 20 procedures each day of my visits.

Cataract surgery is the most commonly-performed procedure on the planet with over 3.7 million surgeries performed annually in the United States.  Over 20 million are performed globally each year and the number continues to rise due to aging populations.

Over 98% of surgeries result in improved vision and complications are rare and usually treatable. 95% of patients achieve 20/40 vision or better (good enough to drive without corrective lenses) and many achieve 20/20 with or without glasses depending on lens choice.

Best of all the procedure is covered by Medicare and my supplemental insurance policy.  Between you and me this is good government policy; trust me, you don't want millions of vision-impaired baby boomers on the road. 

At the present time both my eyes have been corrected to 20/20 vision so I went to the Dollar Store and splurged less than ten bucks for four pair of +1.75 reading glasses and a couple of plain sunglasses - one for each automobile.   My doc sez that I need to allow a month (give or take) before a final correction in vision can be confirmed. 

We are blessed to live in a Golden Age of replacement parts.

The Three Amigos

Meet the Three Amigos.

 

Same birds. 

 

Same date.

 

Different time and location.

 

 

Jakes of a feather - hang together.

 

Juvenile delinquents... 

 

 

 

 

Daily Dose

Is it just me or does social media seem to have an overabundance of grievance?

Since the beginning of this year I have endeavored to be a better person.  Not a Mother Theresa - just better.  And as a consequence I truthfully don't have very many grievances.  I have opinions; but that's not the same as full-blown grievance.

As a public service and in the interest of spreading positivity on the interweb here are some recent trail camera photos from our woods.  

A daily dose of happiness and cuteness....

Stinky Cheese

It’s True, Limburger Cheese Contains the Same Bacteria as Feet

Surface-ripened, aged, and famously malodorous Limburger is a 19th-century northern European cheese that was traditionally layered between slices of dark bread with raw onions and horseradish (or mustard) and washed down with a frosty beer.   

 

When the sandwich-beer combo came to Green County, Wisconsin, with Swiss and German immigrants, tavern-goers went for it in such a big way that it wasn’t until decades later, when saloons closed during Prohibition, that Limburger sales declined.

America’s lone-remaining Limburger cheese factory is in–you guessed it–Wisconsin! Chalet Cheese Co-op still makes and distributes more than a million pounds of the stinky cheese annually, and you can order an authentic Limburger sandwich at Baumgartner's Cheese Store and Tavern in Monroe.  

 

Learn more about the science of Limburger here.