Turkeys, non-human

[Larry Sheldon]

I have no idea where to look for stats, but it sure seems like they are
"reestablished". We see 10-15 in the yard and on the deck two or three
times a day (dunno if it is the same group, or different groups) and
groups that big or bigger along the road that runs along the bluff.

At the moment there are a couple more on the deck, only one on the
platform (there are often three or four) but that is enough to cause
consternation in a large group of the smaller regulars flitting around
in the mystery tree.

One is eating BOSS from a hanging feeder (Redbelly there now). One flew
up from the deck to roof--dunno what the plan is there.

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ICBM Targeting Information:
http://tinyurl.com/4sqczs
http://tinyurl.com/7tp8ml

[Nanzi]

We here in DE have seen many turkeys, one flock that hung around our
area for several weeks. We had the pleasure of being int he car with
grandsons 9 & 12 and saw a hen with chicks following her right next to
the road. We stopped and the boys were thrilled to see them. The
flock that hung around sported a brown & white, and a milk chocolate
bird. And our Jack Russell reminded them how to fly!! When one
gobbled at our Greyhound thru the fence he jumped back a few paces and
did a play bow like he wanted to play with it. Really cute. Love being
out in the country, except for dial up connection which stinks.
Nan

[Larry Sheldon]

"Our" turkeys can fly very well. It is clear that they would rather
walk, but when the need arise they take of effortlessly.

Well, effortlessly in the sense that a C5 takes off effortlessly.

The take off from the deck and fly to the roof every now and again (I
don't know why) but that is a pretty steep departure angle. If I or the
dog startle them they take off from the deck or the ground under it and
clear the elm trees along the property line.

[Larry Sheldon]

Earlier this "summer" (and in previous years) we saw large grops of
young being herded and tended along the road (corn, soybeans, hay
growing, cattle feed lots).

Looked like several adults tending several flocks of young--sometimes it
looked as if some of the adults were deliberately acting as "road guards".

[Howard Lester]

"Nanzi" wrote

> When one
> gobbled at our Greyhound thru the fence he jumped back a few paces and
> did a play bow like he wanted to play with it. Really cute. Love being
> out in the country, except for dial up connection which stinks.
> Nan

Enjoy your greyhound; they're beautiful creatures. (I had one.)

I've seen some flocks of wild turkeys around here in upstate NY. Reminds me
I should get a bottle to commemorate my sightings....

Reminds me of the second Far Side cartoon I'd ever seen. It was published
shortly before Thanksgiving in, I think, 1979. You're looking over the
shoulder of a tom turkey sitting in his stuffed chair (with doilies on the
chair arms, of course), his wife walking across the room... He's reading the
newspaper and you see the big headline "Ax Murders on Rise Again."

Howard

[Jerry Avins]

There used to be turkeys here in Central NJ, but I've seen none around
mt house this year. My sister, about 40 miles west, has plenty. I big
section of the woods behind my house has been converted to $1million
houses, but there's still a quarter-mile buffer.

Jerry
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Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get.
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[Larry Sheldon]

Jerry Avins wrote:

> There used to be turkeys here in Central NJ, but I've seen none around
> mt house this year. My sister, about 40 miles west, has plenty. I big
> section of the woods behind my house has been converted to $1million
> houses, but there's still a quarter-mile buffer.

The first turkeys I saw some ten years or so after we moved here were in
the seriously expensive neighborhoods due north of here a mile or three.

Inquires at the time said they had been re-introduced, but I don't know
just where.

I think there must be several hundred birds now, between here and town[1].

[1] "Here" is here:
http://tinyurl.com/4sqczs
http://tinyurl.com/7tp8ml

"town" is here:
http://tinyurl.com/ybocvgl

[Jerry Avins]

Here too, maybe 20 years ago. They apparently didn't like where they
were released, because their local range keeps shifting.