You may have seen a few turkeys scratching about the Blue Mountains lately, and we’re not talking about the variety that’s served for Christmas dinner.
Greens councillor Brent Hoare has been visited regularly these past few weeks in his Hazelbrook garden by an Australian brush-turkey he’s fondly named Billie.
“It has been a delight to have a brush-turkey move into our backyard. Although the chooks are a little non-plussed, they appear to be adjusting to having to share their space,” he said.
While they can kick up a bit of a mess in well-manicured gardens, Cr Hoare is enjoying the return of the species which was nearly hunted to extinction by Indigenous Australians and European settlers and, by the time of the great depression, was a rare sight.
“I would like to encourage the Blue Mountains community to be understanding and welcoming of these ancient animals, and to help improve the science surrounding their distribution and numbers by recording sightings on the Brush-Turkey SpotterOn app,” Cr Hoare said.
The app is the brainchild of Sydney University PhD student Matthew Hall, in collaboration with The Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney, and the Taronga Conservation Society.
“Our research involves tagging and GPS tracking brush-turkeys, observing their behaviour in both urban and rural areas, and measuring how they change the habitats they live in. The outcomes of our project will increase our understanding how this interesting species is adapting to urban life,” Mr Hall said.
The turkeys can create chaos in well-manicured backyards, because of their method of reproduction, which involves constructing huge mounds of soil and leaf litter and burying their eggs within them.
“As the leaf litter decomposes, it produces heat that keeps the eggs warm. The males must maintain their mound throughout the breeding season, constantly topping it off with fresh soil and litter,” Mr Hall said.
“It is this effort that puts brush-turkeys so often into conflict with residents. This ancient method of reproduction, more closely aligned with reptiles than other birds, requires plenty of space and resources.”
There have been nine sightings reported in the app in the Blue Mountains, stretching from Hazelbrook to Blaxland.
“[They] have started to appear on our property for first time in 5 years. We have seen two in yard at same time, feeding from our chicken coupe. They leave chickens alone and move on when you walk towards them,” a turkey spotter from Winmalee wrote in the app.
Cr Hoare is hopeful if Blue Mountains residents document their turkey sightings in the app Mr Hall may visit the Mountains to record the findings and talk to other avid turkey spotters.
The councillor, who has called for cat tracking projects to be undertaken in the Mountains in the past to get a clear picture on cat behaviour in the bush, said it was important the turkey was given every opportunity for survival.
“To ensure the return of the brush-turkey it is more important than ever to support co-ordinated measures to control feral cats and foxes that prey on almost defenceless and unprotected young chicks,” he said.