Guarding His Turf

 

This crew marches through every few days. There are distinct patterns to their occupation of the area. In very early spring, ALL the turkeys are in attendance. It’s like a festival–the males in full display, with the females standing around the edges of the gathering, gossiping.

Then, they split up. Each female finds its own little safe place to nest and rear her young when they are very little. As soon as the young’uns are ambulatory (and can fly), the females congregate and forage in large groups, like the one above. Child care is easier with many eyes, and I’m sure there’s comfort in numbers–plus, they can gripe about the challenges of solo parenting a large brood. Early and mid-summer, it’s fun to watch the mother turkeys showing the chicks the finer points of the foraging arts. One year, I watched in awe as a turkey mom showed her clutch how to jump up to get the better raspberries.

Of course, those were ‘my’ raspberries they were gobbling up.

This year’s batch are lanky teens now. They meander through the fields and forests, making trouble. The cats are fascinated. The turkeys are cautious. I don’t now what either cat would do if they actually caught such a big bird. Mostly, the cats just make sport of them, stalking and flushing them, and then preening to celebrate their awesome success.

Here, Stanley is standing them off at the top of the path. While the cats may be forced to share their environment with the marrauding turkeys, he’ll be damned if he’ll let them near his house.