Another sure sign of spring – the wild turkeys are back! Last evening as I was making dinner I glanced out the kitchen window and spied seven deer grazing in the orchard. Shadow and I had surprised two in the driveway when I took her out for her walk earlier. I called John over with the binoculars to see if we could recognize any of the deer. We’re starting to spot certain repeat customers; the doe with the badly crooked leg, another doe with unusual markings on her hind legs. No repeat customers. But John suddenly called out “The turkeys are back!”
Wild turkeys are fun to watch. They come out of the woods at dusk and dawn. They are very shy. If you run into them in the woods and they are nesting on the ground, they fly upwards with a huge noise. They are very large, and if you don’t know they are there they can really frighten you.
We counted 11 females pecking at the edges of our field this morning. They are very plump looking. I was surprised – I thought the harsh winter would have made them thinner, but no, their feathers were glossy and black and their bodies nicely rounded. We haven’t seen a wild turkey on our property since October. It was like they waved a wing goodbye in the fall, and now herald the coming of spring.
Will they nest in our woods? We’ve seen chicks while on vacation in Kentucky. They are the cutest little things. They have huge clutches of eggs and frankly, the chicks are so stupid they are probably fast food for predators….I think I read somewhere that they have a dozen babies because so few survive. The chicks really will walk right out in front of a car. I’m guessing they would walk right into the jaws of a fox too.
Now to keep Shadow from chasing her new “friends”….
