I’ve written about our resident wild turkeys, how a couple of years ago the bachelors got lucky and the two hens had nine new turkeys. They were darling as they followed their moms around that summer. I didn’t see any hens or babies last summer, though I did see the three tom turkeys, who are just vile. They meet up on my picnic table down by the firepit and smoke their cigars and swap lies. While it may be kind of fun to watch them in the meadow during mating time (so I’m a voyeur), their overbearing, aggressive personalities are more negative than the positive.
Lately, they’ve been up near the house, availing themselves of the fallen birdseed from the feeders. The other day. Casey happened out the door headed to the garage and I’ll be dipped if those assholes didn’t come at him, garbling and acting all tough. He went on in the garage, grabbed a broomstick and there ensued a small skirmish, but he called a truce when I intervened. I was getting ready to drive somewhere and I wanted to be able to get through without a fight. They sauntered off toward the front of the house and I went out and got in the car without incident…however,
As I drove down our driveway (it’s about 0.1 mile) they decided to attack the car. Have you ever seen a car-chasing dog? They want to attack the tires, the moving tires? These turkeys were like that. I was rolling along slowly and the one was dipping his head right into the tire well, while the others were running along gobbling and giving me large side-eye through the passenger window. I was forced to turn right to avoid running over the front man and thought I’d outmaneuvered them.
But noooo….Looking in my rear view mirror, there they were! a triangle of turkeys running their little legs off, gobbling loudly, their snoods bouncing and their wings puffed. It’s a wonder they didn’t get run over, but traffic coming toward me saw them and slowed to a stop when the turkeys stopped… in the middle of the road…and the bastids proceeded to attack those cars, too!
When I returned from my my errand, they were back in the front yard and left me alone…
The very next day, Casey was working in the garage and didn’t realize they were out there when they attempted to stroll in. He got the broom again…chased them down the hill swatting and yelling as they slowly and loudly backed off. He threw a big stick and knocked one of them down, so they finally retreated and Casey returned triumphant…
Turkeys have been known to be aggressive toward humans and pets in residential areas. Wild turkeys have a social structure and pecking order and habituated turkeys may respond to humans and animals as they do to another turkey. Habituated turkeys may attempt to dominate or attack people that the birds view as subordinates.
Ha! I hope Casey has proven himself to be the dominant Turkey…
(He also pulled a muscle in his back and has been using the heating pad and ibuprofen…but don’t tell the Toms)
It’s the time of year for these nasty birds to be even more nasty, and right when I was ready to trap and remove them, I got a visit from the milder side of the Turkey tribe…
There were two older guard females off-camera and I am astounded… These are the babies that we saw two years ago and they’re all present and accounted for! No doubt because the women have been in charge and I hope they’re not teaching them to be jerks like the bachelors…
who just happened to be a little behind them…
Ya gotta let nature be nature, I suppose… Once they are through mating, they’ll calm some…I hope…I know I do…
And anyway, we might as well leave them the room since we’ll be vacating the premises shortly. They would be better protection than a guard dog…
Speaking of vacating, we opened up the trailer and have started to load out for our upcoming trek. We are watching the weather here for good travel conditions and will probably leave a day earlier than we’d planned. You will, of course, be the first to know when we are on the road again…
The temps are dropping down to the teens for the next couple of days, but there is about an inch of snowcover that brightens up the landscape and the weatherman promised some sunshine…
Peace
