Talking Turkey

We have had some new visitors to the farm lately. Wild turkeys! Of course turkeys are no new thing on the farm and we have seen them quite often in the past, but usually we just see them from a distance. They might be crossing the road or every once in awhile out in the pastures. I even saw one being stalked by a coyote in our hay pasture one time. The lucky turkey saw the stealthy predator in time to fly away, with some help from me and the coyote went hungry that day.

These wild turkey encounters have always been from afar though. Well, except for that one really close up, from out of nowhere, in my face at 50 mph by way of the windshield of my car turkey experience. I can't really count that one, because between the flying feathers, screeching brakes and shattering glass, that turkey and I didn't exactly have time to say hello to each other. He ran away and neither one of us or the sheriff deputy that responded could find him. I left that turkey encounter feeling very sad, needing a new windshield and almost a new pair of pants.

Lately though there has been a few brave turkeys that have been hanging around quite close to the house. At first it was just one turkey. I noticed her the first time when I happened to look out the living room window and caught her strutting around the back yard, bobbing her head and eyeing our vegetable garden. The next bob of her head she happened to see the curtains move and she quickly sort of ran and flew away. Turkeys are not the most graceful fliers.

She came back a few times and pretty soon she brought a friend. Now there was two turkeys hanging around the house almost every day. They hang out in the driveway first thing in the morning and then they like to come up to the back of the house mid morning after the goats and horse are done eating to pick up any grain they have dropped. It wasn't long until they stopped running away when I opened the backdoor and now they just walk away. The picture above was taken through the window. Jeez, I need to wash the windows but they are only about 20 feet from the back door here.

Up until yesterday it had just been two turkeys hanging around the house. They were hanging out by the backyard again. Now apparently the word is out and it is a turkey party up in here and we have three turkeys at least. I suspect they are roosting on the brush pile in the horse pasture not far from the house. Until yesterday I had not heard them make a sound. Yesterday I was in the house when I heard a strange, soft "pip" sound. "What is that?" It is hard to describe, but it sounded like pip....pip..pip. It took me a minute to realize it was the turkeys making that strange sound. So we grabbed the camera to try and get some pictures of them.



If you turn up the sound on this video you can hear them. This was the turkeys early in the morning after a heavy overnight rain shower. They walk away if they know I am watching them so this was filmed by opening the backdoor a crack and sticking the camera out. It worked for awhile and then Joker the goat had to give us away. Yes, that is hay on his head. He must have been eating out of the hay rack. He gets so much hay on his head because he likes to ram the hay rack with his horns. Maybe he would stop if he knew how silly he looked with that hay on his head all the time. (The constant clicking sound in the video is the electric fence charger)

The turkeys know we are watching them so they start to walk away. They don't do the panicked, head bob and run anymore. They just sort of mosey on back out to the pasture when they realize we are watching them.

"Oh Wait! I see a kernel of grain I missed!" Can't leave that little tasty treasure behind. Apparently she is the "just one more" chick at the turkey party.

The other two girls don't wait on her and head back home, down the horse path.

She catches up though and they walk single file back out to the brush pile together, going "pip" "pip" as they go.