I don’t seen all the critters who venture into my yard but I notice a lot of tracks, especially now with the snow. The turkeys aren’t able to hide their tracks in the grass or their bodies in the lush bush so they probably are ready for summer.
Turkey in Summer
Since most of the turkeys are already dressed and ready to be put in the oven tomorrow, this guy is probably safe from being the honored guest at tomorrow’s Thanksgiving dinner. But the deer hunt continues for a few more days yet so with the guns going off, he might not feel very safe.
Safe Turkey
When I went outside this morning, I scared three turkeys who were roosting in the trees. And one of them looked like an amateur pilot as it tried to weave through the branches since I was blocking the open flight area. Turkeys never look very graceful when flying so probably better they spend more time on the ground than in the air. I imagine they were trying to find a spot to hunker down before the snow storm arrived as I saw a flock of geese heading south too this morning.
Safer on the Ground
On Thanksgiving day, dinner often has turkey as the main course but these wild turkeys were safe from being the center of attention.
Happy Thanksgiving 2017
I think there needs to be some crossing gates, like for a railroad, on the side road for a critter crossing. Instead of a deer crossing the road coming home from church this evening, there were close to three dozen turkeys strung across the road in the same spot and it took a while for them all to get across.
Turkey Crossing
The new coating of snow allows me to see tracks of critters which visit my yard during the night or ones that sneaked through by during the day. Sometimes I happen to spot them out the window like this turkey.
Turkey Making Tracks
A mother turkey has been bringing her four babies out on my lawn looking for bugs to eat (including ticks which I am glad as they can eat 200 ticks in a day). If they were seed eaters, they would have had a lot of sunflower seeds this morning as some critter smashed my bird feeder pole last night and the feeder was on the ground. A group of turkeys is called a rafter although I don’t know if that holds true if only one adult and the rest are babies (which are called poults).
A Hen and Poults
The past few mornings, I have had a bunch of turkeys wandering through my yard. I suppose they would like me to let them inside this weekend when the wind chills drop to -30 to -40ºF so they can stay warm.
Turkey Tromp
“On the Twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me Twelve Drummers Drumming.” Twelve drummers banging on drums inside my house would be too much of a racket, as even one would be too noisy. It wouldn’t be a sound which would attract me to my true love, even though a tom turkey will drum in the spring to attract hens. He will drum a two note “pffffft, duuuuuuuummmmmm” forced deep from his chest either softly or loudly depending on the location of the hens. On another very chilly morning, the gobbler won’t be drumming for girls for springtime romance but could be calling the hens to see if they knitted a sweater for him. A present of twelve turkey drummers does have an advantage over a gift of twelve musicians since you could shoot the turkey and have a drumstick!
Twelve Turkeys Drumming
It looks like this turkey is trying to sneak quietly through the woods to avoid being the main course at someone’s Thanksgiving dinner.
I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving!
