Wild Turkey in DC

Mike Milton (mikemilton@ibm.net)
Sat, 17 Apr 1999 22:26:55 -0400 

    Today Judy Schaefer, Cliff Nation, Cathy Nation, and I started at
the Oxon Hill Children's Farm parking lot and crossed the footbridge
over Oxon Creek, to access Oxon Cove, specifically the 42-acre site in
DC which has been transferred from the National Park Service to
Corrections Corporation of America.  Judy is active in the environmental
and community-based effort to keep the site as a park and oppose
building the prison.  A picnic and rally is scheduled for Saturday 4/24,
starting at the Children's Farm at 10:00 AM (opportunity to bird
beforehand) and including a visit to the site.
        Our species count was only 55, as we cut straight across the
marshy bottomland and returned up the dirt road, rather than exploring
the several habitats of Oxon Hill.  We flushed only one Snipe, in
contrast to the dozen or so on Paul Bacich's trip two weeks ago.  No
vireos, warblers, or tanagers.  Ospreys and Field Sparrows were
gratifyingly abundant, though.   One Cattle Egret.
        The site itself, dominated by young box elder and with ground
cover mostly purple dead-nettle, was not birdy, but Judy to her
amazement saw a Wild Turkey, probably female, in a little grove.
Unlike Bart Hutchinson's surface warrior, it was seen momentarily, ran
to cover, and could not be relocated.  Only Judy saw it, Cathy heard the
motion, Cliff and I were elsewhere.
       Wild Turkey IDs require little defense, but Judy pointed out that
(i) she was the one who spotted a turkey flock while driving Egypt Road,
on a trip to Blackwater; (ii) she completed a weekend field seminar
devoted to wild turkeys, in western Colorado.  This bird did not look or
act like a domestic turkey, which are raised at the Children's Farm.
Tail tip coloration was not noted. We later talked with some of the park
rangers, about human history of the site, and plans to lead children's
and beginner birdwalks there as we do at Kenilworth.  The rangers
mentioned other wild turkey sightings.
    This bird was seen about !0:00 AM, about halfway between Oxon Creek
and the vehicle impoundment lot.  This would put it definitely in DC.
I have not previously heard of Wild Turkey within the District line, or
closer to it than GW Parkway across the Potomac.  I suspect that some
eminent DC lists do not include Wild Turkey.
	We also met a prison architect, who said he thought it unlikely that
the prison would be built, as the site was not large enough for an
adequate facility of the degree of security contemplated.