Gobble, Gobble!!

Not long after I moved here, I caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a mature turkey with a number of smaller turkeys walking into my woods. I figured it was a mom and her babies. I tried to get a shot but they didn’t give me much time.

Mom and babies?

I figured it was a fluke until a few weeks ago when I finally got a chance to start opening up some paths in my forest. My mom, sister, and some other friends joined in so we were able to get to the first plateau pretty easily. Beyond that it gets fairly steep.

A couple friends arrived later so I was showing one the path up that hill and we just kept pushing a little further up. He stopped and stayed at a fallen tree but the top seemed so close, so I kept climbing. Granted, I had to use smaller trees to help pull me up in some spots but I just could not stop since I was so close to the top.

As I got nearer and nearer, I heard something fly into a tree. I looked up and saw a turkey peering at me from the branches. That was just the energy boost I needed. I yelled down to my friend that there were wild turkeys and kept climbing. By the time I got to the top, I heard them… and they heard me. They kept moving to the other side of the hill and I did not follow. It was getting later so I just took in a few beautiful views of the treeline down the back part of the hill and tried to get back to my friend and find the path down the hill. I couldn’t find the path and my friend had already started down so I kind of slid most of the way to the plateau, but I made it out of the woods before dark. Ha!

I told everyone about the turkeys, but I had not brought my phone with me so I had no pictures. No worries!

I visited their home, so it was not long before they visited mine. I saw them on top of the plateau nosing around the next day after we had been making the trails but they did not come into my yard.

A day or so later, they did. Half a dozen turkeys came for a visit.

They kept puffing up to each other.

All of them had beards. The little one to the right was the trailblazer.

I watched them wander around before slowly making their way down the hill and then across the street. It took them two tries to make it across the street. They were rightfully scared of the traffic.

Why did the turkey cross the road? Probably to escape Thanksgiving dinner…

I went back to work, but a little later in the afternoon I glanced up and saw the smaller lead turkey. This time, he was under my bird feeder!

Black-oil sunflower seed really does attract the most variety of birds!

I looked around but did not see the others. I guess he just wanted to fatten up in case he became someone’s turkey dinner? I’m sure that would be tastier than the frozen turkey I bought and cooked, but they are so peaceful in my yard. I have a hard time thinking of them as anything but my neighbors.