' WILD TURKEY ' GOTCHA !!

with feathers .... we used to have wild turkeys come into the bird yard where my turkeys were 'talking' or 'booming' ... they would sit on top of the pen or strut their stuff around the pen ... soo talkative .... and so coollll ... well now that my turkeys are gone they are confused and keep 'booming' on the north side!

They look like a bronze with just a inkling of extra white feather throw in for interest or to stand out just the tiniest bit more in the woods ... my son makes turkey fans to hang on the wall from their wings .. so cool ... He uses their beards for decoration and a leather backing. I like the ones he fans out and down a bit more than the feathers that are straight across.

There have been flocks of 20 wild turkeys for years now we have flocks of 40 or a hundred, dodging thru the woods, darting in and out between the pine trees. They seem to love to travel thru the thorny bushes and the service berry thickets. Now and again I'll get a flock traveling thru the yard. Now that really surprises me what with three big dogs outside. I imagine my hounds have been so used to my birds that a flock of wild ones just seems 'run of the mill' to them.

I loved to hear the booming of my Tom's enticing a hen to sit and stay a few. There's just the wild ones now. I raised those or rather my peahen hatched them out last year for me so I hated to loose em' but that's country life. My peacocks have always run loose here in the hillside. So one day my hen decided to nest in the haystack. Took a bit to find her and when I did I circled her with chicken wire and placed a food dish and water inside for her. Then I slipped a few turkey eggs under her. She was wonderful and hatched them out and loved em just as her own.

So many years ago a white peacock sallied in and strutted across the front yard as if she had been raised here. We were sitting out on the front porch when she just showed up!! No one ever claimed her and for several years she thought she was a guinea hen. She would glide above her buddies on the ground all fluffed up warning whatever predator from the sky was near that she was indeed on guard duty. They would have to get thru her first!! And she must have looked intimidating, nary an attack on her flock. The guineas would fly circled around a threat with their claws outstretched and their wings buzzing like a helicopter.. How they could fly like that was amazing.

All the birds in my menagerie. You would think they wouldn't have lasted for so long in the wilds where I live. Those dadgum turkeys would walk right up to anything and say hello! I had to keep them penned to keep them safe and that was not an easy thing for me to do. So I was trying really hard to hatch a few with my peacocks so they could teach them to be wild and safe!

We turned a tom loose one day where there were a number of wild hens calling in the spring. Wasn't too many days before I was traveling on the back logging roads to town and lo and behold!! There he be in the middle of the road! As I drove by he tried to follow the burban. Poor buddy knew my rig and wasn't about to be left another night in the deep dark woods all alone abandoned by his harem. So the boys collected him up and homeward bound he went!

So now in the woods we have dark legged and red legged wild turkeys!! Booming their way to my house to walk on the wild side next to my slider and parade around their chicks!!

Living in the county, Wild Turkey just not the kind that comes served in a glass on ice!!