Wild Turkeys

GardeningCook · Fri Jul 24, 2015 2:28 pm

Finally saw a group of our wild turkeys the other day. Only six - two mature females & four younger ones, but not all that much smaller than the two adults so couldn't tell if they were an early hatch from this year's brood or yearlings from last year.

While I'm certainly glad to see them, the numbers are a far cry from the year before last when we had around 30 of them traipsing through our yard twice a day - several adult females & scads of youngsters of varying ages. Everything from fuzzy poults to young approaching puberty. They were wonderful to watch.

But this year, just these six so far. Sort of sad.

PaulF · Fri Jul 24, 2015 2:40 pm

Two years ago we had two separate flocks of about fifteen each going through the yard morning and evening. Last year only saw one flock a few times. This year one flock with several adults and about a dozen chicks. Got this shot as three hens decided to stop for a drink from the fish pond. Just love the turkeys.

LIcenter · Sat Jul 25, 2015 6:37 am

I saw three families last Saturday morning in my neighborhood while taking the boy to work. Between the three there had to be a good fifty poults. They are quite the traffic jammers around here. If you dare to honk at them while they are strolling in the road, be prepared to have your front bumper pecked to no end.

GardeningCook · Sat Jul 25, 2015 1:41 pm

Wow - your turkeys are far less "wild" than ours. They scatter at even the very slightest sound or movement.

HoneyBerry · Sat Jul 25, 2015 5:13 pm

How nice, to have wild turkeys come to your yard. No gobble-gobble here where I'm at. I wish that I could have more wildlife, but at the same time, I appreciate what I do have.

LIcenter · Sat Jul 25, 2015 5:40 pm

GardeningCook wrote:Wow - your turkeys are far less "wild" than ours. They scatter at even the very slightest sound or movement.

No such thing as scatter with these guys. Neighbors walk their dogs on one side of the road all the while the turkeys are strolling on the other side.

LIcenter · Sat Jul 25, 2015 5:47 pm

BirdLover wrote:How nice, to have wild turkeys come to your yard. No gobble-gobble here where I'm at. I wish that I could have more wildlife, but at the same time, I appreciate what I do have.

Pluses and minuses. If they find a tree they like, which may happen to be in your yard, you are doomed. They will roost in that tree every night, and hopefully your car, pretty deck, or lovely garden is not underneath it. They are a real problem where I live. Cute as all get out, but still a problem to say the least.

GardeningCook · Sat Jul 25, 2015 6:01 pm

How Long Island has changed since we lived there! No turkeys at all to speak of, & only the rare handful of deer - mostly on the east end & in the state/county parks.

LIcenter · Sat Jul 25, 2015 6:25 pm

How long has it been since you left the island? Back in the early nineties is when I first saw a turkey on LI. Never forget it. Exit 68 on the LIE had a little patch of grass before the exit ramp, and here were these two turkey's. Bout bowled me over. The deer have all but eaten all of my hosta's, and anything else that is not deer resistant. My front yard looks like a battlefield. The weeds they never touch! I mean cmmon! I'm happy to share a few hosta's if only they would help me in weed control.

GardeningCook · Sat Jul 25, 2015 7:10 pm

We were both born & raised on the LI waterfront - Setauket/Stony Brook/St. James/Nissequogue areas. Moved to Virginia in 1994.