Happy Thanksgiving! Thanks for stepping away from the kitchen or the table long enough to read my turkey of blog. Here goes:

The autumnal equinox arrived at 12:01 a.m. Sept. 22, and by daybreak, the wild turkeys were surrounding my house. Seriously. They gleefully dug up and pooped on my neighbor’s pristine lawn, and foraged olives right off my other neighbor’s trees. They paraded across our cul-de-sac in a group — called a rafter, by the way — of 20 or 30 scrawny toms and hens. They were definitely in need of fattening up.

It seemed an odd, slightly gruesome coincidence that the wild form of the bird most of us slice into on Thanksgiving would suddenly show up here at the crack of fall. Since when did California have so many wild turkeys roaming around?

Since practically forever, according to my Google search.

According to the New York Times, “the wild turkeys that populate 54 of California’s 58 counties,” including Solano, “are the descendants of those introduced to the state more than a century ago. Since then, they have been managed as upland game birds. According to the Guide to Hunting Wild Turkey in California (published by the state Department of Fish and Game), the first recorded release of turkeys into the wild was in 1877 by ranchers on Santa Cruz Island.”

So, in essence, the wild turkeys we see around today are not native to California, but were introduced and thrived. It seems folks either love (that would be the game hunters and birders) or hate (farmers and avid gardeners) the wild birds. They are large, noisy, messy, occasionally aggressive toward humans, and omnivorous. They’re lovely to look at, apparently great fun to hunt, and eat a plethora of insects and plants, including agricultural crops, which is a very big problem.

In 2004, the California Department of Fish and Game created a lengthy strategic plan for wild turkey management that details the damage done by the big birds, and what the Golden State is trying to do about it. I geeked out on the report, and gained some new respect for the birds. So often you hear about how stupid turkeys are. I would argue the wild ones are quite wily. They’ve certainly made a home for themselves around here.

They just need to work on the right time to show up.