Troubled Turkeys

This past summer and fall we have enjoyed watching a flock of turkeys roam our homestead. This summer, we usually saw five, but right around Thanksgiving time, a flock of between 35 to 50 showed up. On Christmas Day, we counted about 25 near our barn about 3:30 pm. Lately, they have become very bold, probably because of the thicker layer of snow and their inability to find nourishment easily. They also seem to have adopted the divide and conquer strategy. We no longer see the large flock - but smaller groups. They have no problem walking right up to our house and garage and bins.

I hear comments from others in our area of large numbers of turkeys also. Evidently the natural predators are not so abundant? It does seem we hear the coyotes howling at night the same as ever. This snow cover will be trouble for the big birds. end