Bus Living, Truck Living, Boat Living. You name it, if you live in a home that is capable of moving by itself, or have the desire to, then this is the place for you.
Yipee, It is sunny this morning, here in middle Tennessee. I took the dogs out for their morning walk around the property. Both of these Labs were strays that wandered to my place where I used to live, quite a few years ago. You may not know this, but they have been judged and sentenced to "life on the hook" (leash, that is). They will chase anything that moves and won't come back for hours. They would probably end up on some road and get squished by a car as well.
Getting back to the turkeys. There is a large family of wild turkeys that wander about the property. I counted 25 of them the other day. Buddy and Emma (my dogs) would have chased them for sure.
I know that group of geese is called a gaggle. My question is, what are a bunch of turkeys called? A tribe?
A flock. But I always thought "a herd of turkeys" had more pizzaz to it! (A rafter?? I wonder what they call a bunch of chickens? I still like "a herd of turkeys")
Last edited by dburt on Mon Sep 28, 2009 1:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Here are four turkey photos. I think I was the turkey by not using the 15x zoom for the first two. I am going to have to figure out how to get closer to them. Maybe if I crawl on the ground. They only let me get about 75 feet from me, hence the far away photos. I'll take some more soon. So here's what I have for now.
There are about five bearded ones. they hang at the back of the group.
I have an inexpensive digital camera that I got in a trade. I bet if I save up a couple hundred bucks, I could get a good camera that has a better zoom. Well that's in the future. For now, I'll try sneaking up on them by crawling on the ground. I'll even wear camo shirt, pants, and hat. Do you think they will smell me when I am sneaking up on them? If I was a hunter, I would most likely know the answer to that question. The only thing I hunt for is a pair of socks in the morning.
Last edited by Rudy on Sat Nov 28, 2009 12:46 pm, edited 5 times in total.
After many years of low wild turkey populations in the Pacific NW, they began to make a comeback about 6 years ago. One day a friend of mine and I were driving down a back road and came around a corner during harvest time. There were about 50 wild turkeys in the road eating corn or grain that had spilled out of a farm truck and they were not going to move for 2 locals in a pickup. So we had to slowly push through them and they parted to open up and then closed around us as we passed. My wife got a very small wild female turkey chick from the local co-op about that time and it imprinted on us as it grew up, I don't think it ever realized it was a bird. It was a very interesting animal, it acted like a guard dog by letting us know when strangers came up the driveway, and protected the chickens from hawks, skunks and other critters. She liked to hang out with people, she just liked to sit down near you and have you scratch her neck. She was a very inquisitive animal, always watching what you were doing. Peeper lived to be about 4 years old before she went to turkey heaven. My wife still misses her.
DB, Your pet turkey, coupled with the fact that TMAX has two geese brings to mind, when, a long time ago, a friend had three white (guard geese). He said they were better than having dogs. They were very territorial.
You gave me an idea when you mentioned those turkeys in the road. Perhaps I can bait them. I'll find out what they really like to eat. I'll spread some out in the field. Perhaps I can even make a trail of the goodies leading up to me. Maybe they will follow the trail and walk right towards me, while I wait with the camera. This is getting fun.
Rudy, another time I was going down a remote highway in the mountains near where we live, when I rounded a corner and there were about 15 of the birds eating beside the highway. It appears a grain truck had spilled a little dab of corn or grain, and they were having a potluck on the white fog line. I slowed down because I did not want to startle them and cause them to take flight, a 25 lb Tom in your windshield at speed is not a good thing! But they never even looked up, they were intent on the grub. I know other folks who feed them in thier yards, and they come every day for thier handout and seem quite content to be near folks. They are a wily bird, very smart but quite interesting to watch. Much smarter then thier domesticated white cousins who end up on the tables of millions at Turkey Time.
Hi Rudy, the reason I got my first goose (Henri the gander) was for a cheap watchdog for our aviary yard. He has worked out very well for the last 13+ years. Gloria joined our family as a shelter rescue about 4 years ago. They will make a racket with the slightest disturbance day or night. Another plus is that their squawks are very different if they perceive friend or stranger. They have been very trainable in that they will follow me when called and will stay within the boundaries of our property when in the front yard (Henri will go to the edge and watch me, he will wander off if I take my eyes off him though).
Probably the best (and least expensive) way to attract the turkeys is with whole corn. Easily available at any grain supply store.
TMAX, Thanks for the tip on the whole corn. There is a feed store in town. Perhaps I can get a 25 lb. bag for cheap. I don't have any side work today. I haven't seen the turkeys yet. I'll get some corn tomorrow. Rudy.
I went to the feed store and got 50lbs. of shelled corn. I put it out in the field where I could see them from my studio desk. I didn't know if they would come around today. About 4 in the afternoon, I spotted them. Unfortunately this was the same time that the neighbors a few fields down were shooting their guns which got my dog Buddy to start barking. So the turkeys were already skiddish and did not let me get too close to them. I did manage to get three shots. The first two were far away, The third one I got by crawling behind some weeds to get a closer look.
Last edited by Rudy on Tue Dec 01, 2009 1:52 pm, edited 5 times in total.
What a dum dum. I should have poked the camera through the weeds on that last shot. What I am going to try for is to sneak up on them the next time and hopefully see one of them fan their feathers out. I want to get that picture. I will hold off on these kind of shots you have seen so far. They pretty much are all the same. I don't know when I will be able to capture "THE" shot, but I suspect that I can find them milling about the corn I left for them. Well, until then gobble gobble. Hey, wait a minute! Isn't there such a thing as a turkey call? Is there anything that would make the male turkeys fan their feathers? Maybe there is a female turkey doll in the Victoria's Secret catalogue! I must admit, I know as little about turkeys as I know about what the mechanical things are under my bus. By the way, I spoke with Mark Obtinario on the phone the other day, and he had answers to a lot of my questions. Also he offered a lot of advice that will keep me from doing stupid things concerning my bus. Thanks, Mark. Rudy
I must admit, I know as little about turkeys as I know about what the mechanical things are under my bus. By the way, I spoke with Mark Obtinario on the phone the other day, and he had answers to a lot of my questions. Also he offered a lot of advice that will keep me from doing stupid things concerning my bus. Thanks, Mark. Rudy