Turkeys!

[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?

[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?

Yes, yes it is similar.

[maillotpois]

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

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

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.

[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.

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.

[Duck on Wheels]

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

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.

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 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!