The following story is written by guest writer, Marc Schneider, about our experience recently (Feb. 20-25, 2021) with Wild Turkeys.
One day recently a neighbour called to say he had seen 12 turkeys in our north fields. We live on a farm that is split by a busy highway. It has fields and mixed forest on the north of the highway and a field on the south, between the highway and the St. John River with hardwood trees lining the river. Turkeys had been seen within 5 km for the past few months but not here.
Given our habitat and location I did not expect to see turkeys here on the south side where we live. But the turkeys fooled me. We had never known the turkeys to cross the highway and so have never been seen on the south side before. I thought the habitat was inhospitable for them and the area too small to support them.
One morning a few days after the neighbour’s report, I went out to fill the bird feeders and noticed large bird tracks in the snow near the feeder. They were much too large for crows or ravens, normal regular visitors. And they certainly weren’t Great Blue Heron tracks which they looked like. So what was I looking at? When I told my birder wife about it, she asked if I had thought of turkeys.
Early the next morning, I looked out the window and there was a flock of turkeys under the feeder, pecking away! We counted 13 birds. We were amazed and pleased. The turkeys were eating mixed grain I had spread on the ground and sunflower seeds that had fallen from the hanging feeders. I put more seeds out, morning and evening in subsequent days, and the turkeys showed up twice each day. We enjoyed watching them peck the ground, scratch, make runs at one another, flap their wings and mill around. The original 13 became 15, and not because we counted wrongly. A couple more had joined the flock. Some of the birds have small beards, indicating they are young toms.
One time I watched the flock for a bit, and then went to do something else. When I came back, there was a flock of redpolls on the ground where the turkeys had been. The turkeys had really shrunk! The largest birds we have ever had at our feeders were replaced by one of the smallest.
At various times over the next five days, we would see the turkeys walking along near the edge of the river, going up and down and feeding on fruit still on the wild grape vines. Then one day, they appeared as usual in the late afternoon to feed. Afterwards, they loitered around, preening, snoozing and gradually walking towards the oak and ash trees on the riverbank. Soon one turkey flew into one of these hardwood trees. As we watched over the next 20 minutes, all the turkeys flew up into the trees and looked like they were trying to get as comfortable as they could. As the turkeys settled, they did lots of wriggling, flopping and preening. Eventually, they were quiet, each bird roosting a few metres from its nearest neighbour.
The night had good moonlight, so I checked with binoculars a few times during the night and could see the turkeys were in the trees. At breakfast time, with the sun up, they were still there. Around 8 AM, the turkeys began to fly down from their roosts. Very shortly, they were at the feeders, eating the seeds I had put out the night before. They had spent a full day with us and answered a question we had about what turkeys do at night or in a storm. I’ve been in a crow roost in the softwoods and have seen ruffed grouse roosting but the whereabouts of turkey roosts remained a mystery. These turkeys gave us a rare insight into what they do when roosting for the night. We feel privileged to have had the experience.
If this flock spends too much time with us, there might be a problem. Their droppings are much like goose droppings and they produce a lot of them! After a 5-day visit, the turkeys appear to have moved on. We do not know where they have gone but are pretty sure they will be back.
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