Happy Thanksgiving from the Neal Taylor Nature Center! Our Thanksgiving weekend was amazing, with a fully booked park of campers who spent their holiday at Cachuma Lake. We were busy at the Nature Center, with two Books & Treasures sales that raised over $200 for the Nature Center. Hundreds of visitors came to the Nature Center over the weekend, many of which came for our Arts & Crafts activity on Friday and Saturday.
We always like to give our arts & crafts activity a nature theme, so this time we re-used paper towel rolls to make animals. Some of the children really showed their creativity by making turkeys, owls, bees, cats, flowers, dogs, even flowers and aliens out of the paper towel rolls! We loved the flower idea so much, that we used it as an example for Saturday’s Arts & Crafts session.
We also made a new exhibit for Thanksgiving, featuring a full wild turkey wing. This beautiful piece has been sitting in our back shelves, and wanted to bring it out to display the magnificent and iridescent plumage of this iconic thanksgiving bird. The exhibit text reads:
“California’s wild turkey population stems from thousands of non-native Rio Grande turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo intermedia) imported by the California Fish and Game Commission from 1958 to 1999. Although once home to the extinct Meleagris californica, California’s landscapes now host these adaptable birds.”
A wild turkey has 5,000 to 6,000 feathers. Feathers serve in insulation, waterproofing, protection, concealment and recognition. Even though they are large birds, wild turkeys can fly at speeds of up to 55 mph. They can also run up to 25 mph.
