Wild Turkeys

Rob Keeble

Member
Messages
12,633
Location
GTA Ontario Canada
This post is for all those that hunt and specifically Dave H who hunts turkeys.

I was on my way home today and saw these birds on the other side of the road. Hit the brakes and screeched to a stop while pulling off the road.

They were fine and i took a few pics with my cellphone, but when i got out the car and crossed the road they decided that was too close for comfort and ran off. I counted 20 in the flock. In one pick you can see the gobbler not letting the hen out of his sight. I watched him walking after her she was out front of the whole flock with him following. Then they hi tailed it quickly.

Was really good to see them and see the feathers which the darn cell phone camera does not do justice to. Spurred the hunting juices in me but then i remembered even if it was by some miracle hunting season we have a rule that says must be more than 400m from a road. Wonder if they been reading regs.:rofl: I had the sun behind me and could not see what the cellphone screen was showing in camera mode. That will teach me not to have my proper camera with me. Anyway enjoy the picks. Was -7 Celsius out there today but at least the sun was shining.

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Those look fair sized. A bit bigger than the western browns we have around here. I think in general east coast turkeys are bigger than west coasters - we were driving through NC a few years back and I saw a big old tom alongside the road and dang near went into the ditch looking at him. He was almost as big as a whooping crane.
 
I had a girlfriend in College in South Dakota. The wild turkeys perched on the fences all around their corrals. Big birds that you had to honk at to get out of the middle of the road. If they wanted a turkey dinner, it would not have been hard to have harvested one. They were practically as tame as the chickens.
 
Still early here for the turkeys to be out and about. Last Spring, and thru most of the Summer, we had about 25~30 of them in the yard nearly every day. Started when one hen brought her day-old brood to the area under our bird feeders, and within a couple weeks we had four hens and a big tom. Watched the little ones grow all Summer. Was going through about fifty pounds of cracked corn every ten days, all Summer. Then, about mid-September, they left, not to be seen again. Hopefully, they'll be back soon.

All Winter, we've had deer every evening. Sometimes as many as nine at once. Now we're going through the cracked corn at about ten pounds a day. Gets expensive, but they're very enjoyable to watch.

I should mention that my property is bordered by a huge reservoir/wildlife preserve, so we've seen/had in the yard nearly every species of wildlife known to NE Ohio.
 
Hey Ryan thanks for the link that was nice bit of info Bass Pro put up.

Thought has occurred to me that in North America some of the best conservationists are the hunter population through their various federations.

Jim it must be great to have the wildlife visit like that. I joke about taking out one of our rabbits in the area but as Linda keeps saying "go in get a gun lets see you do it" she knows i am too big a softly to do it. When they live around you they become too much like neighbors and pets. I can understand why some dont want people hunting on their land.

But what is interesting if one goes back to that article from the Wild Turkey Federation that Bass Pro published an extract from is the weights of these birds by comparison to what the general public has been bread to believe from shop bought farm raised birds. Funny how ego always gets in the way with humans ...gotta have the biggest bird on the table so we breed them to meet the demand. :)

I still would like to have a go at hunting one someday. More for the challenge and experience and yeah i would like to try the real thing rather than the store bought.
 
Nice pics, Rob. :thumb:

And Don beat me to the punchline. :) I was gonna say that wasn't the first time Turkey and Coke had gone together. :D And here's yet another approach to the Turkey and Coke (products) theme...

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