Tag: Wild Turkey

Urban Turkeys

Hi all, we have finally made our way to Dauphin Island for the migration. A bit of a letdown for our first couple of days, but things are likely to improve with the current storm. Not to wish additional hardships on our Gulf crossers, however, the high winds and rain will likely result in fallout conditions as soon as the weather improves. Going to let Brad take the Intrigued controls back over while I go in search for an umbrella.

Take it away Brad…

Legend has it, if Ben Franklin would have had his way, the turkey would be the national symbol of the United States.  We all know the turkey “lost out” to the bald eagle, but you have to admit we ended up with a much better symbol.  However, the turkey has since taken over, at least in population numbers.

In 2022, Jan and I ended up seeing turkeys in five states.  That’s correct, five different states.  Some of the states may very well be obvious, but I bet at least one will surprise you.  It sure surprised me.  I’ll walk through our year of turkeys from East to West.

But first, a little turkey history and lore.  What is a group of turkeys called?  Hands up for “gaggle”?  The word gaggle is thought to be based on an old English word “gagelen” meaning to cackle.  Maybe a “gang,” but only if in neglected urban areas.  What about just a plain old flock?  The word “flock” is good generic term for any grouping of birds.  How about a “rafter”?  Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding.  We have a winner.  A group of turkeys is properly referred to as a rafter of turkeys.  I guess this is like a “murder” of crows, which doesn’t make sense to me either.  Some think the term “rafter of turkeys” comes from the fact that they like to sleep in tree branches or other high-up places.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Turkeys like to sleep off the ground, usually in trees.  Or where the rafters of a house or barns would be.

Urban Turkeys by Brad Marks

Hit the jump to read more about Brad’s year of Turkeys!

Continue reading Urban Turkeys

Giving Thanks with Bearded Ladies

To our readers based in the States (or at least hailing from the States) we extend a hearty Happy Thanksgiving! For those of you that do not officially celebrate this particular holiday, or at least maybe not at this point in the year, we wish you a Happy Thank’Em Day – basically a “Festivus for the Restofyou”. In the official Holiday, we typically adorn our tables with feasts of plenty anchored by the traditional plump, flightless domesticated Turkey. While partaking in said feast, we pay respect and gratefulness for those who helped us become what we are today, those that continue to keep us on the right path and for all those that we may never meet in person, but whose sacrifices, insights, creativity and other benefiting acts that contribute to our current state of living. Thank’Em Day is nearly equivalent. We still extend our appreciation for all the same things, just doesn’t include the bountiful feast (10 out of 10 Turkeys surveyed much prefer this alternative ha!).

Without further ado, I would like to start by giving my “Thank Yous” to our family. This has been a really tough year for Linda and I as we have both lost close and cherished family members. It’s the deep family bonds that really shine during these times and having their kind shoulders to lean on when times are darkest is the clearest definition of love. The same goes for our friends – some we’ve had the honor of building upon from childhood playgrounds, others gained later in life, all there to lend a hand when you need it, convert a frown to a smile, provide valuable advice when decisions need extra scrutiny and, for those in the close circle, even willing to ride along on a late night run to the “Train Station”.

And to our faithful Intrigued readers, many of them who have become dear friends over the years thanks to this forum, we want to let you know just how appreciated you are. Your interest in our tins and ramblings keeps us motivated in the field and continue to make this blog thingy just as exciting as it was when we started out nearly 16 years ago. Your kind comments and insights helped us to successfully grow the Wildlife side and will continue to guide us as we expand into more nature related themes.

None of this would be possible without Linda (shhhh, don’t tell her though) who is more often than not our field guide, bird whisperer, personnel transporter, trip planner, food provider and predator distracter … I mean LOOK OUT. My brother Ron is a huge contributor to Intrigued. Not only was he the inspiration for starting this whole blogging adventure, he’s always willing to head out into the field, helping to educate me on birds, assisting with difficult IDs, tick magnet and continually pushes me to improve my “skillz” (“You call that a picture of a bird, I painted better images with finger paints in kindergarten”). A heaping amount of gratitude to our Intrigued staff who toil away night and day to make us look good. (eh, with exception to our Pain-in-the-Ass lawyer pool ha). That includes a special thanks to Brad Marks (and his support staff) who recently came on board and is already giving us fantastic posts from his many adventures (not to mention catches a lot of my typos). Oh, and I can’t forget to express my appreciation for my intern (Linda “you can keep trying all you want, but I already told you a thousand times you are NOT getting an intern!!”) – think of that as a future shout out hehehehe.

Now for the most important thing I’m grateful for today ….

Wild Turkey found at Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park, Mission, TX in January 2022

I actually have new pictures of Wild Turkeys for today’s post!

Hit the jump to find out some quick background on our honoree of the day!

Continue reading Giving Thanks with Bearded Ladies

Turkey Incognito

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  Even if you are not from the states, hopefully, we all have something to be thankful for even if there isn’t a designated holiday in your neck of the woods.  This year is a bit of redemption for me from the last couple of years.  If you happen to recall, two years ago I was shocked to learn I didn’t have an appropriate topic to honor the day.  Ended up going with a substitute featured feathered friend – the Turkey Vulture (link here).   To my credit, at least it had the name of the traditional protein right in the name (and large, with some red, funny looking… you get the picture).  Last year I was so embarrassed I completely skipped the topic and announced I was unofficially stepping out of the corporate arena (link here).  Simply skipped right over the day itself and picked back up with part two of the Cedar Waxwing series (link here).  The hope being no one noticed I didn’t have a bird in the hopper that even remotely related to a Turkey – sigh.  Well, this year you are in luck.

White Wild Turkey found at Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park, Mission, TX in January 2021

Hit the jump to find out about our incognito Turkey

Continue reading Turkey Incognito

WTiaT

I need to get on the stick with these posts.  Between the yard work, running, birding and ramping up the Halloween prop lab for this year’s haunted trail (link here), things have been getting a bit bunched up.  I was going to wait a bit on this one, but an encounter a few days ago while hitting the trails for some training felt like a sign.

Wild Turkey found at Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park, Mission, TX in January 2021

Yes folks, we have our next installment of the “in a Tree” series.  This one is not as odd as the previous Roadrunner in a Tree as I’ve witnessed a Wild Turkey in a Tree (WTiaT) a few time times in the past.  Admittedly, on the rarer side as typically they are wandering around the ground or trying to play Frogger with Linda’s vehicle.  As luck would have it, this is one of the few species Linda doesn’t have a silhouette of on her front fender – for the record she stands firm her bumper is the victim of animal suicides.  

Wild Turkey found at Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park, Mission, TX in January 2021

Hit the jump see a few more shots of our large bodied tree climber.

Continue reading WTiaT

Happy Gobble Gobble Day

“As God as my witness, I thought Turkeys could fly.” If you are in the 50-60 year old range, you probably recognize that quote instantly and remember with admiration for one of the truly funny sitcoms of the era – WKRP in Cincinnati. A time when I could sit down, enjoy a bit of TV and laugh a little for 30 minutes – now, not so much – in fact very little is worth my valuable time these days. Sure it was filled with political and social commentary (ad boycotting, proton/electron gangs, freedom of lyrical speech come to mind), but regardless of your position, the intelligent writing, wit and delivery could still be enjoyed by different perspectives. I guess I should be grateful on this Thanksgiving Day for the extra time I have to focus on my photography and blogging. Have a wonderful holiday wherever you might be, stay safe in your travels and enjoy today’s timely feature of Turkeys that CAN fly (a bit at least ha).

Tom Turkey Shot at Rocky Mountain National Park May 2014

This particular Tom Turkey was an unexpected surprise.  Linda and I had stopped to take pictures of a Great Horned Owl in Rocky Mountain National Park back in May 2014.  You might recall, we were able to get some shots of both the mother and her Owlets (link here).  I had moved to a location up on a hill allowing me to shoot almost directly into the pine tree they were nesting in and yet still far enough away that there were no unwarranted concerns by any of the subjects – somewhat aided by the fact I was shooting from behind a large boulder on top of the hill.  So caught up in shooting the owls, I didn’t even notice this dude come walking up behind me.

Tom Turkey Shot at Rocky Mountain National Park May 2014

In honor of today, hit the jump to see a few more pictures and read a bit more about the Wild Turkey.

Continue reading Happy Gobble Gobble Day

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

May your travels be safe and your family and friendships be strong

Wild Turkey shot on lot in Brimfield, IL

Sorry for the slightly soft pictures – only Turkey shots I had that were processed and haven’t already been featured on the blog.  These were taken by my feeders back in August 2015.  The mother hen would bring her offspring over for a morning snack.  To her credit, she kept a close eye on them and would hurry them to safety whenever she saw my camera pointed at them.
Wild Turkey shot on lot in Brimfield, IL

Happy Holidays!

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Project Chekov: Turkey, Thrasher and Titmouse

A Turkey, a Thrasher and a Titmouse walked into a bar.  The bar tender goes “Sorry, we don’t server T’s.  Okay, okay, not as funny as three men walk into a bar, the fourth one ducked, but I gave it my best shot.  Like the last post this one brings you not one, not two but Terree (in my best Monty Python imitation) birds.  Unfortunately, unlike last time it is short of images – a measly one per species, weak.

First up is the Wild Turkey. These birds definitely differ from their domesticated brethren in that they can flight.  Not very well, but they can go short distances and launch themselves into the trees if need to escape from danger.  Typically you will see them hanging out on the ground at the edges of tree lines looking for berries, insects and snails (per Cornell’s dietary information).  Cornell also mentions they have made a comeback of sorts and now can be found in every state but Alaska.  Likely easier to just go down to the local Walmart and grab one out of the freezer than stalk these quarky birds in the wild.  According to Wikipedia they actually got their name from the country Turkey (as a result of Britain bringing us the domesticated version) – did not know that.

I have found them to be very aloof and not wanting to be around humans at all.  Whenever we spot them they usually turn and head for the woods almost immediately.  The one above is a female that has been hanging out in the woods near a ravine not too far from the house.  While we were building our house we discovered a group of Wild Turkeys living there and did our best not to disturb them too much – one had actually laid about 8 to 10 eggs at the time.  Soon after they were hatched, the mother took them to another location – our builder mentioned the Tom’s will kill them if they find them.  Guessing it has been this female that has been hanging around here each year.  This year she was hauling around two offspring!  She brought them to the feeders twice but each time she saw me with the camera she gathered them up and high tailed into the woods.  Glad to see at least two of them made it to juvi status – maybe those will take up residence next year as well!  I was surprised to find that the Wild Turkey hasn’t made it to the Blog yet – chalk up another check mark.

Next up.. the Brown Thrasher.  Now this bird has made a showing on the blog.  The previous two showings were in my own backyard (link here and here).  This new sighting was at Banner Marsh in a Mulberry tree along the side of the road partway to the marsh.  While taking pictures of another bird, there was a rustling in the tree behind me.  Turning to investigate this Thrasher was staring right at me.

That began a 15 minute battle to try and get a clear shot of that damn bird.  Pretty sure it knew I wanted it in the tin so it purposely kept itself partially hidden.  jumping form branch to branch as it circled the tree away from me.  I’d stop it would stop on the other side of the tree – move left it went right, move right it went left and when I moved into the center of the tree it just went to the top.  Extremely frustrating.  Kind of feel bad for Linda having to hang out in the car watching me dance around this tree.  This is the ONLY shot worth showing from that battle.  All in all, not too bad if I say so myself.  Again, the journey was more than the destination.  Something about these birds make it seem like they are always pissed off (probably because humans keep disturbing them with their big glass).  Guessing it is the yellow eye, but not sure on that.

Hit the jump to see the final bird in the set

Continue reading Project Chekov: Turkey, Thrasher and Titmouse