Wild Turkeys: flocking or solitary?
Brian Link
urban, but in Minnesota urban often means close proximity to woodland.
While it's not the mecca for birding my previous gig in Shoreview was,
there is an odd mascot for the campus I'm situated in. There's a wild
turkey which I suspect is a male (I call him Wurkey) that pretty much
spends the entire day strolling around the office park, munching stuff
in the grass and attacking his reflection in the glass-walled office
towers.
The cafeteria staff reportedly feeds him, though I haven't confirmed
it.
The thing is, I haven't seen any other turkeys besides him in the
month that I've been there. So it makes me wonder whether he's been
dangerously domesticated, or simply found a good gig.
My wife saw a large cluster of wild turkeys close to our house (over
20) that were grazing together. Do wild turkeys go solo, or do they
prefer to hang out with their own kind?
Today's drama included a pitched battle with a few crows and an
unassuming squirrel who obviously found itself in the wrong place..
Thanks for any info.
BLink
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled."
- Richard Feynman
Larry Sheldon
> The thing is, I haven't seen any other turkeys besides him in the
> month that I've been there. So it makes me wonder whether he's been
> dangerously domesticated, or simply found a good gig.
Just a guess until somebody that knows comes along...it is a tom on his
wanderjahr. A firs or maybe second year tom that lost all the fights
for a harem. Maybe he will get lucky next year.
We see tom's like that (occasionally two traveling together) some years.
This year there are so many I'm guessing everybody has somebody but it
may be a bit early to say that.
>
> My wife saw a large cluster of wild turkeys close to our house (over
> 20) that were grazing together. Do wild turkeys go solo, or do they
> prefer to hang out with their own kind?
Most around here flock up. Looks like two or three toms combine their
harems with an occasional loner as indicated above.
>
> Today's drama included a pitched battle with a few crows and an
> unassuming squirrel who obviously found itself in the wrong place..
Earlier today we had several turkeys on the platform on the deck--a
squirrel put on a show trying to intimidate the turkeys with out much
success.
Later two squirrels had taken over and the Bluejays were trying to
intimidate _them_.
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Brian Link
<lfsh...@gmail.com> wrote:
>Brian Link wrote:
>
>> The thing is, I haven't seen any other turkeys besides him in the
>> month that I've been there. So it makes me wonder whether he's been
>> dangerously domesticated, or simply found a good gig.
>
>Just a guess until somebody that knows comes along...it is a tom on his
>wanderjahr. A firs or maybe second year tom that lost all the fights
>for a harem. Maybe he will get lucky next year.
>
>We see tom's like that (occasionally two traveling together) some years.
>
>This year there are so many I'm guessing everybody has somebody but it
>may be a bit early to say that.
>>
>> My wife saw a large cluster of wild turkeys close to our house (over
>> 20) that were grazing together. Do wild turkeys go solo, or do they
>> prefer to hang out with their own kind?
>
>Most around here flock up. Looks like two or three toms combine their
>harems with an occasional loner as indicated above.
>>
>> Today's drama included a pitched battle with a few crows and an
>> unassuming squirrel who obviously found itself in the wrong place..
>
>Earlier today we had several turkeys on the platform on the deck--a
>squirrel put on a show trying to intimidate the turkeys with out much
>success.
>
>Later two squirrels had taken over and the Bluejays were trying to
>intimidate _them_.
Bluejays are incredibly ballsy birds. I mean, you inherit a call that
sounds like a hawk, how does that make you feel?
Though when I was a kid I watched one relentlessly dive-bombing our
huge cat in the back yard, until the cat sprang up and knocked him out
of the air. The cat didn't go after him, the bluejay was stunned but
flew away. The cat had made his point.
BLink
--------------------------
"The worst thing about censorship is [redacted]"
Larry Sheldon
of Jack Daniels or white lightnen.
Thereby exhausting all I know about whiskey (always thought the uncles
spelled it "whisky"). Except that there is a difference between
"Scotch" and Scottish, which my teetotal, WCTU, Presbyterian
grandparents would help you with if you needed help.
Brian Link wrote:
>> Later two squirrels had taken over and the Bluejays were trying to
>> intimidate _them_.
>
> Bluejays are incredibly ballsy birds. I mean, you inherit a call that
> sounds like a hawk, how does that make you feel?
>
> Though when I was a kid I watched one relentlessly dive-bombing our
> huge cat in the back yard, until the cat sprang up and knocked him out
> of the air. The cat didn't go after him, the bluejay was stunned but
> flew away. The cat had made his point.
We had a big, long haired black cat in California that the Scrub Jays
beat up on every time he came out (there was probably some historical
justice involved).
Every time he went out into the yard they would hit him hard enough to
kcock him around, yanking beaksful of fur out of him. He'd walk along
the fences under the bushes the long way around to where he wanted to go
and they would hit him every time they got half a shot.
One day after on had hit him three or four times, he time the attack so
that just as the bird arrived, he reared up on his hind legs and turn
around and caught the bird in his forepaws like a kid catching a
football and took off over the fence with it.
I assume the bird's cat-tormenting day were over.
He didn't catch many birds--like the one we have now, he was more into
lying in the sun and bringing home an occasional mouse.
Eric Miller
I believe that turkeys flock in the fall and then the Toms and Jakes
split up in the spring when mating season rolls around. Here in
Louisiana, the hunting season coincides with the mating season. While
hunting I have noticed groups of hens but the males are almost always alone.
Eric Miller
www.dyesscreek.com