Just witness Odd Turkey Behavior

Rob/PA Bowyer · 09-11-2003, 01:49 PM

Some of you know I work for a Telco...well I was just hangin on a pole about 100 yards or more from the resident where I had trouble and I think I hear, raup, raup, raup....so I turn and nothing......I' m working on the pole and I hear it again. I turn to see these two bobbing heads along the guard rail near the house. Well the trouble lied towards the house so I gets down and drives to the house quick to see if I can find the turkeys....I figured from that distance they looked like a gobbler and a hen....sure enough...there stands a 2nd year jake and a young hen along the road.

I pull up close, back in the drive and gets out figuring they' d bolt....nope, I walked right up to about 10 ft of them and they slowly walks into the woods...I circle and walk up the bank and into the woods and they spot me but let me walk within 5 ft of the gobbler and he stands there and looks at me. So I picks up a small pebble and hit him on the back with it and scurried them up into the woods so they don' t get hit...

I go to the house and find no one home, tested the line and the trouble was inside.....I called the guy on his cell phone and talked phone business and looks up to see the turkeys walking up the lane to me....I asked the guy about the birds and he says yes, they are wild birds which I suspected and they showed up Sunday, came back Tuesday and there again today......very ODD.

The only thing I can think is the crown vetch along the road and drive way held some major grasshoppers and the birds knew it wasn' t hunting season,

and didn' t want me to chase them off.....

There is no question they are wild birds but why so unafraid?

Bobgobble2 · 09-11-2003, 02:40 PM

Rob ,I' ve seen this before quite a few times with birds that live in suburban areas.They get very use to people and in alot of cases even epuipment such as riding lawnmowers and chainsaws.We have one subdivision that the birds come right up on the residents wood decks and patios where the folks feed them.By feeding them they relate food to humans and in alot of cases around here act very tame as a result of it...that would be my guess anyway...

Deleted User · 09-12-2003, 05:04 AM

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plinker772000 · 09-13-2003, 05:07 PM

I don' t know what would have caused that but it is neat that you were able to get that close to living wild turkeys!

Rob/PA Bowyer · 09-13-2003, 09:23 PM

Bobgobble, Poult, Plinker....thanks,

I was back the next day to fix the trouble for the guy inside, ended up running a new interior wire but that' s beside the point...

I asked him about the birds again and he said when he got up in the morning, the darn two birds sat on his front porch....swears he didn' t feed them and doesn' t know why they showed up....lol

Some time ago there was a article in a local newspaper about a gobbler that would always perch on a guys chimney.....I guess sometimes animals will do the oddest things.

Bobgobble2 · 09-14-2003, 08:49 AM

Rob, underneath that ole chimney gobbler was there a north,south,east,west, indicator????

lol

Dan O. · 09-20-2003, 07:01 PM

Rob; I had a similar thing happen last week. I was trying to drive out of my driveway when 4 hens came strolling out of the field. They took over a minute to slowly work there way 10 ft. in front of my truck from one side of the driveway to the other. Even after they crossed I pulled up beside them with the window open and they looked directly at me but kept on feeding.

No wonder they had to be reintroduced up here in Ontario.

Dan O.

JoeA · 09-30-2003, 04:52 PM

On Lanai turkey' s are known to frequently follow and run " escort" to golf carts. My friend figures they' re looking for bugs that get scared up by the carts.

ChasinTom · 10-02-2003, 10:42 PM

Ya My dentist goes to Hawaii alot. Since he knows I hunt turkey he tells me stories of the infamous Golf Course Turkey' s. He said they are realy beginning to be a problem.