Turkeys!

[maillotpois]

I didn't want to hijack the darling parrot in the bird feeder thread, but this was crazy enough to mention.

There are a lot of wild turkeys in Marin County, but I have never seen any in Mill Valley until a few weeks ago when I had to wait for one to get out of the road a few streets down. Then last night, suddenly, they were in our canyon somewhere gobbling like crazy. This morning, they seemed even closer. Indeed they were. We came upstairs to find one on our deck rail - 3 stories off the ground (we're on a downslope lot).

Hard to see him through the screen door, but here he is on the deck rail.

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j285/maillotpois/march084.jpg

He proceeded to spend some time on our roof as well, all the while talking to his compatriot who was down in the canyon.

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j285/maillotpois/march087.jpg

[snapdragen]

Wild turkeys are so cool. I've come across a flock of them riding out on the Coyote Creek trail.

[Pax]

How cool!

We had a roaming band of wild turkeys here, they wandered through this one neighborhood and everybody loved them...then they got bold and started chasing cats/dogs/and finally people. The Dept. of Natural Resources had to come and get them since they were chasing people down the street. :p

[Kano]

Wild turkeys are so cool. I've come across a flock of them riding out on the Coyote Creek trail.

COOL! I didn't know they could ride!

Karen in Boise

[Starfish]

Wow, neat pictures! Watch out in your yard for a day or two...I wonder if their "stuff" is anything like what the geese leave everywhere up here? :eek:

[OakLeaf]

Wow. They are so shy where we are from. We have to kneel down and just peek our eyes over the windowsills to watch them, because from 200 feet away at the verge of the woods, they will see us in the window and immediately vanish into the trees.

[7rider]

COOL! I didn't know they could ride!

Karen in Boise

Bwahahahhahahaha!!! :D

Did you yell to it...."Hey, you turkey! What are you doing up there??"

[firenze11]

Wow, Maillotpois, you read my mind completely. I was coming back from the barn thinking how I wanted to post some pics of our turkeys but didn't want to hijack the parrot thread. I need to get my pics of the camera, mind if I post one?

We have four, one male and three females as far as I can tell. What a stud! They come by our bird feeder everyday, at least twice a day. They used to eat burrs but we accidentally had them cut down last summer. Love those turkeys!


I wonder if their "stuff" is anything like what the geese leave everywhere up here? :eek:

Yes, yes it is similar.

[Flybye]

Wild turkeys are so cool. I've come across a flock of them riding out on the Coyote Creek trail.

Everything's more sophisticated in the bigger cities, that's why they can ride. Idaho turkeys pretty much stick to walking and occasionally short flights.:p:p

[Kano]

Wow. They are so shy where we are from. We have to kneel down and just peek our eyes over the windowsills to watch them, because from 200 feet away at the verge of the woods, they will see us in the window and immediately vanish into the trees.

Sounds like you may be lucky that your turkeys are shy:

http://wcco.com/pets/white.bear.lake.2.686749.html

Karen in Boise

[bikerHen]

How cool!
We had a roaming band of wild turkeys here, they wandered through this one neighborhood and everybody loved them...then they got bold and started chasing cats/dogs/and finally people. The Dept. of Natural Resources had to come and get them since they were chasing people down the street. :p

We had a big ol' tom turkey attack our car when we stop to let him cross the road. :eek: We had to wait it out cause he was right in front of the car. Honking only seemed to get him madder. He finally gave up when another car came up the road from the other direction. bikerHen

[snapdragen]

COOL! I didn't know they could ride!

Karen in Boise

Doh! No picking on the mod when she hasn't had her coffee yet!! ;)


***visualizing turkeys on bikes***

[OakLeaf]

We had a big ol' tom turkey attack our car when we stop to let him cross the road. :eek: We had to wait it out cause he was right in front of the car. Honking only seemed to get him madder. He finally gave up when another car came up the road from the other direction. bikerHen

See, our wildlife is just different.

I came home one time and there was a big snapping turtle halfway up my driveway, right in the crest between the wheel tracks. At least 14" in diameter and tall enough, with the crown of the driveway, that there was no driving over him. I honked at him. He ignored me. I got out of the car and yelled at him. He ignored me. I got a 3/4" diameter stick and poked him with it. He bit the end of it off.

At that point I gave up, got my stuff out of the car and walked the rest of the way to the house (1/4 mile, in my dress shoes, in gravel, up a steep hill, but hey at least it wasn't beach sand and my heels weren't that high :p).

DH didn't even believe me when he asked where the car was. He had to walk back down and see it for himself. :cool:

[short cut sally]

I live in the country so turkeys do venture in the field behind our house, along with pheasants. I have never had a turkey stop at my feeder though. That would be so cool. I have been startled by the boogers though while riding. they sounded like a helicopter taking off with all the wings a flappin'..i don't know who left a bigger pile me or the turkey:eek:

[Crankin]

We have a flock (?) of turkeys in my neighborhood. They live on top of the hill, under a water tower that is up there. When we first moved here, I was riding down the hill when one decided to cross the street in front of me. I was scared to death (it stopped) mostly because I didn't know what it was at first. They are HUGE and fairly ugly, too.
I have seen a few of them fly, very awkwardly, to the top of the trees and rest there for awhile.

[SlowButSteady]

Wild turkeys can fly close to 50 miles per hour. They're omnivorous and will eat from bird feeders when available. There isn't much I don't know about Meleagris gallopavo, and the only thing I haven't seen one do is swim, though I've seen rare photos of that. :)

It's currently their mating season. While XY's can gobble year-round, peak gobbling activity is in the spring. They have a complex vocabulary. Only the males gobble & strut (well, sometimes I have seen hens strut). Hen vocalizations include mating yelps, clucks, purrs, and something called cutting. Juvies do a shrill whistle called a kee-kee.

I've seen them at dawn come sailing off the side of a mountain in Sonora, Mexico. The wind whistling in their wings...it sounds like a bomb dropping.

It's making me misty-eyed as we speak.

Ugly? It's in the eye of the beholder.

Great photos. Thanks for sharing; it made my day.

[Geonz]

How cool!

We had a roaming band of wild turkeys here, they wandered through this one neighborhood and everybody loved them...then they got bold and started chasing cats/dogs/and finally people. The Dept. of Natural Resources had to come and get them since they were chasing people down the street. :p

Yup, and it got the Mayor a gift of a bottle of Wild TUrkey at one point... I saw them a few times out riding, but they didn't come after me. They had gone after some folks, though on bikes it didn't matter.

[SadieKate]

Doh! No picking on the mod when she hasn't had her coffee yet!! ;)


***visualizing turkeys on bikes***Here I thought you were talking about the 2-legged spandex variety using the bike trail for race training, mowing down the young'uns on their Bigwheels.

[jobob]

Them too. :cool:

[bmccasland]

And don't forget that the Wild Turkey was almost our national bird!

Instead we got the scanvanger Bald Eagle. Good looks, nasty eating habits.

[maillotpois]

I wonder if their "stuff" is anything like what the geese leave everywhere up here? :eek:

Oh yeah - he left a nice gift on the deck rail just before he fanned out his tail feathers. :cool:

I don't hear them this afternoon. Perhaps they have moved on.

SlowbutSteady - I had to go to your profile to figure out why you were such a turkey expert!! ;) I get it now.

Our wild turkeys are not afraid of people. They take their sweet time getting out of the way of your bike. I remember coming across a gang of them when I was trail running once. I'd only seen them from a bike, and from the ground they were alarmingly tall. None of them chased me, though. :D

[Brandi]

We just got back from camping here in our county. And there were so many turkeys! They were waking us up every morning! Those turkeys!

[Bad JuJu]

Our wild turkeys are not afraid of people. They take their sweet time getting out of the way of your bike. I remember coming across a gang of them when I was trail running once. I'd only seen them from a bike, and from the ground they were alarmingly tall. None of them chased me, though. :D
On the rail-trail I used to ride on, there were a few wild turkeys that were chasing cyclists occasionally one spring. I saw them a few times, but they never chased me. Maybe they were the males and they only chased away other males. :D

[Duck on Wheels]

Oh yeah - he left a nice gift on the deck rail just before he fanned out his tail feathers. :cool:

I don't hear them this afternoon. Perhaps they have moved on.

SlowbutSteady - I had to go to your profile to figure out why you were such a turkey expert!! ;) I get it now.

Our wild turkeys are not afraid of people. They take their sweet time getting out of the way of your bike. I remember coming across a gang of them when I was trail running once. I'd only seen them from a bike, and from the ground they were alarmingly tall. None of them chased me, though. :D

I don't think it's their leavings that are the biggest problem. After all, that's good fertilizer. It's a bigger problem for gardeners that they dig. They can make pretty big bare, dusty patches in a garden. But if your lot is more woodsy (as it seems from the pictures) that may not be so much of an issue. Watch for "leking" (mating) behaviours! That's really a cool sight. The males will fan out their tails, arch their heads back to show off their colored wattles, and strut slowly about. From a distance they seem to glide like model sailing ships (Portuguese man-o-war style). Meanwhile the females pretend not to notice :rolleyes: but they must send some kinda signal when they walk away into the woods, since the males seem to know which ones to follow. I loved watching that in the Spring back when my Mom lived on the slope of Mt. Taylor in Sonoma Co. My morning hike up Warrington Rd. took me past a leking site. I'd also see bats, migrating newts, roosting buzzards, lots of deer, once a coyote ... That was such a lovely hike!