Runge Nature Center
Whenever I walk this area I can get a 3 mile workout in. I double back on one section to accomplish this. While visiting this area you might run into the resident flock of Wild- Turkeys, lots of birds, squirrels, and even a Black Snake. There are numerous trees some really large and old, and even a fire tower which you can climb.
Wild Turkey
In the early 1500s, European explorers brought home Wild Turkeys from Mexico, where native people had domesticated the birds centuries earlier. Turkeys quickly became popular on European menus thanks to their large size and rich taste from their diet of wild nuts. Later, when English colonists settled on the Atlantic Coast, they brought domesticated turkeys with them.
As Wild Turkey numbers dwindled through the early twentieth century, people began to look for ways to reintroduce this valuable game bird. Initially they tried releasing farm turkeys into the wild but those birds didn’t survive. In the 1940s, people began catching wild birds and transporting them to other areas. Such transplantations allowed Wild Turkeys to spread to all of the lower 48 states (plus Hawaii) and parts of southern Canada.
When they need to, Turkeys can swim by tucking their wings in close, spreading their tails, and kicking.
