Rich Santysiak remembers as a kid seeing ring-necked pheasants in the fields around the Toledo subdivision where he grew up. That was 1964, and with habitat loss and urban sprawl, along with an explosion in the population of predators likely playing a big role in the change, that was the last time he saw a wild game bird of any kind.
That is until recently ... when a flock of wild turkeys browsed their way across his yard on Cresthaven Lane, near the site of the old Southwyck Mall. Cresthaven makes a north-south loop around the west side of the vacant site, shadowing Southwyck Boulevard, and it also is near a wide parcel of undeveloped green space that creates a large corridor along Swan Creek.
“The first time I saw them was when I noticed our cat just staring out the window and really paying close attention to something outside,” Santysiak said. “Before I opened the door I wanted to see what was out there, and I was shocked to see a couple of adult turkeys and then seven chicken-size offspring walking through the yard.”
What Santysiak saw was two hens and six poults, immature turkeys that were born in the spring. What he also saw is the continued recovery of this largest of Ohio’s upland game birds.
Wild turkeys once were prevalent across the forested areas of the pre-settlement territory that would become Ohio. They were an important food source for Native Americans and for early settlers, but as forests were cleared and large tracts of land converted to agriculture, the population dropped. Unregulated harvesting of turkeys combined with that habitat loss to make wild turkeys extinct in the state by the early 1900s.
Once formerly cleared areas were reforested and turkeys raised on game farms were released into the wild, but these birds failed to survive. Another effort, this time with wild turkeys that were trapped in West Virginia, Missouri, and Kentucky where there were healthy, established populations of the birds, was undertaken starting about 60 years ago, and it was successful.
After these new flocks of wild turkeys multiplied and expanded their range in the southeastern part of the state, biologists began trapping birds and transplanting them in other areas of Ohio. Wild turkeys took advantage of stream and river corridors to spread out, and they have proliferated to the point where 67 Ohio counties are open for wild turkey hunting in the fall, and all 88 counties are open in the spring season. The wild turkey population in state is estimated to be in the neighborhood of 200,000, according to the Ohio Division of Wildlife.
Although their preferred habitat is mature forests, wild turkeys also are highly adaptable and can thrive in areas with minimal cover as long as there are trees for roosting at night to protect them from predators, and ample food sources. Turkeys feed on grasses, insects, grains, acorns, beechnuts, wild grapes, leaves, and a variety of plants.
“As they were walking through the yard, they seemed to be pecking away at everything on the ground,” Santysiak said. “They seemed to be heading towards Swan Creek, at least heading in that direction. The bigger ones were on both ends, with all of the chicks in the middle. They went right across the yard, walked through an old split-rail fence, and disappeared.”
Santysiak has seen the turkeys a number of times since that first introduction, and he said it is usually mid-morning when they cross his property. In the wild, these birds will have a home range of about two square miles, but that outline of their range is likely quite irregular in a urban/suburban setting like the Southwyck area.
“I’ll see them in a yard down the street, and then they manage to get across the street somehow, even with people flying through here all of the time,” Santysiak said. “The adults are always very alert and looking around their surroundings, while the younger turkeys just keep feeding, pecking at the grass and moving along. They take their time, but they always seem to be moving.”
Santysiak said he and his wife try to be as discreet as possible so as not to alarm the wild turkeys, and they enjoy seeing this new arrival in their established neighborhood. Santysiak’s experience is becoming increasingly common, according to Skip Markland, the regional director for the National Wild Turkey Federation, an organization that has invested $488 million in wildlife conservation and the preservation of North America’s hunting heritage since its founding in 1973.
“This is just another illustration of how turkeys have made a tremendous comeback in Ohio,” Markland said. “Their presence in urban and suburban neighborhoods suggests that they have saturated their typical and preferred rural habitat. Wild turkeys typically migrate along riparian corridors, thus their presence in Ottawa Hills and in South Toledo along Swan Creek.”
Markland said the essentials of good habitat are all wild turkeys need to thrive.
“As long as there is appropriate habitat, they will come,” he said. “Like most wild animals, all they need is food, water, and cover. The Ottawa River or Ten Mile Creek provides all of this. The Metroparks in the area also provide the all-important grassy nesting areas, and they have trees along the creeks for roosting, which is also very important.”
John Kerwin, who lives north of the old Southwyck site near Swan Creek Retirement Village, said he saw one wild turkey last year, but this fall “it has been a parade of them.” Kerwin said he counted 14 turkeys in one group, which was composed of two or three adult birds and the rest poults. The retirement center lies close to the waterway as it loops along in a more eastward track towards the Maumee River.
“We’ve got all kinds of wildlife around here — skunks, raccoons, opossums — but I’ve never seen a wild turkey before this,” Santysiak said. “It’s a new type of wildlife, so it’s a fun experience. These are really magnificent birds and it’s kind of amazing that they are living right here, surrounded by people and houses.”
Contact Blade outdoors editor Matt Markey at: mmarkey@theblade.com, or 419-724-6068.
First Published September 25, 2017, 6:00 p.m.
