Don't expect to see one of THESE in suburbia...

Art Mulder

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London, Ontario
This morning I spotted this gobbler about 1km from my house, pacing back and forth along the fence beside the train tracks. I was on my way downtown on my bike running an errand. I came back about an hour later and was surprised to see it still there, so I grabbed a camera from the house and came back.
turkey1.jpgturkey2.jpg

Can't say much for their intelligence... there was a hole through the fence about 50 meters in either direction. But this bird wasn't finding it.

I biked back home and by coincidence my wife + kids just drove into the driveway, so I hopped in the van with them and gave the kids a treat, as they'd never seen a live wild turkey before. (Come to think of it, neither had I, not that close!! :p) Good timing, as 30 seconds after we drove up the silly bird finally found the hole in the fence and disappeared into the brush along the tracks.

Still, wild turkeys are not something I expect to find 5-7km from the city edge (nearest open farmland.)
 
Art, my parents live on the edge of a small town in KS...they have had wild turkeys in their back yard in the past, not sure if recently. Here in IA they are quite common as well. I think they may have over done the reintroduction into the wild here about 15yrs ago. I've seen news reports that they can really tear up a green on a golf course...
 
When I lived in Folsom, CA these guys (and gals) were like Animal Planet stars in my Apartment complex, in the parking lot at work, etc. When Silly-cone Valley crashed and burned, the survivors moved to Folsom and exploded the population in less than a year. I'm sure the turkeys were wondering where all these bipeds came from. As far as intelligence, the Tom's would show off to themselves in the reflective glass while 2 or 3 females were 20 feet away.
 
I haven't seen turkeys this close before, but I've sure seen roadrunners. I had one living in the cacti in my front yard several years ago, and one day, sitting at the dining table, I heard a pecking and looked up to see one of them pecking at the sliding door onto the patio. We had a pair living in the field next to our office, and one of them would come up and preen in the glass windows of our office. Unfortunately, I was never near enough to my camera to catch a photo.

Art, maybe he was a refugee from the States; it's turkey season in a lot of places now.
 
We've got a group of turkeys that come into the yard on a weekley basis. A lot of times there is a single hen that runs around a lot. Everyonce in a while you'll see the tom with about 5 or 6 hens walking through. It sure is funny to see them spook and fly. You don't often think about turkeys flying. Jim.
 
Pretty common around here Art. We've had them in the area, strolling through our neighbourhood for several years now. Just last week we had two hens and one of the biggest Toms I've ever seen go through our back yard. They were too edgy to get a photograph though.

cheers eh?
 
Art,

Don't know if this is near you, but they seem to be doing better up there:

The wild turkey population has grown so rapidly in the Outaouais that there will be a hunt for the birds this spring in La Pêche and Val-des-Monts. Five 'years ago 100 adult turkeys were imported from Ontario in the hope that a wild turkey hunt would attract tourists. There are now an estimated 10,000 wild turkeys in the Outaouais. La Pêche Mayor Robert Bussière said there will be a five-morning wild turkey hunt in the region May 2-6. Hunters will be able to hunt the birds only during the morning because they roost in trees in the afternoon and are too easy to kill. Mr. Bussière said hunters must take a course offered by the Fédération québécoise de la faune and can kill only one bird each.

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/city/story.html?id=be6c0689-8446-4914-a923-e1e13152e45c

Thanks,

Bill
 
. It sure is funny to see them spook and fly. You don't often think about turkeys flying. Jim.

Man this stirs a funny old memory: "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly" -- Arthur Carlson, WKRP in Cincinnati.


eta: youtube link


Art,

Don't know if this is near you, but they seem to be doing better up there:
...
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/city/story.html?id=be6c0689-8446-4914-a923-e1e13152e45c

Close? Depends on your perspective. Some long haul truckers might think nothing of a 8-9hr drive. But folks with young kids, like myself, might not be so keen on that kind of a drive. :D

And what are you doing reading the Ottawa Citizen? Sheesh, I think you'd get enough politics where you live, without having to go looking for another nation's capitol to read about.

ta,
...art
 
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