Turn Out Day

We were awakened this morning by the unmistakable "clicky" sound of turkeys.  In an odd way, their sound reminds one of water dripping....kind of a Chinese torture when you're not quite awake and not quite asleep....Choik, choik, choik, whistle, whistle, peep,peep,peep, choik, choik...right outside the bedroom window.  Muzzying into wakefulness, I mumbled to MM that there were turkeys on the porch.  He muzzyed back and said that was O.K.  I mumbled, "I think not."  So, I continued to muzzy (is this a verb?)  forth, finally got up and looked out the window and saw the  source.  Remember these little guys we got back in June?

Well....now they look a lot different.  Of the 17 we initially had, we have successfully raised 14, and now that we have them, we are contemplating simply letting them continue on bug patrol for us.  They consume hoards of grasshoppers! 

And this year....we have HOARDS of grasshoppers!  The turkeys don't seem to harm anything, (the grasshoppers do) and we can always put them into the finished garden later this fall, (or the freezer) and in the meantime, they simply continue on endless circuits of our four-acre enclosed yard, flushing up bugs, and munching buckwheat and millet. At least this is the theory.  I'll let you know how or if this pans out!  

They're fun to watch!  And fun, too, to hear.  They click and alert their fellows to any change in individuals' direction or process or danger from overhead.  We had several buzzards in the vicinity the other day, and the turkeys hunkered down in the tall buckwheat, and were completely hidden.  Amazing how they disappear in the mottled foliage.  Even their white feathers pass as light dappling on weeds.  (Not that the buzzards would bother them, but rather, it's a turkey's reasoning that tells them there's a possible threat coming from overhead--a raptor of some kind and to take cover.) 

 They are in constant communication with one another, and as they march forward, clouds of grasshoppers take to the air--and their gullets!  They're not really what one could call "tame," but they are cautiously gentle birds and not the least bit flighty.  They come for feed, but are mainly making their living from natural food right now, and it's a joy to see. 

Rememember the movie Jurassic Park?  I believe the producers used turkeys as their models for those Velociraptors!   

 

Thanks very much for coming to visit this past week.  I've so enjoyed your company!  It's going to be a wonderful weekend!  The temperatures have moderated (for those of you in "damper" circumstances, I wish you sun! ) and Old Sol simply doesn't have the fierceness it had two weeks ago. 

See you Monday!