Two nights in a row last week I disturbed the evening constitutional and was rewarded with an eruption of birds flying off to safety. The one night they were directly over my head, but moving too fast for me to get a count. I thought I saw two or maybe three hens.
Over the weekend Brian just happened to see them crossing through our front yard. We watched as two hens and approximately 12 little poults passed just under my office window, went up the bank, and crossed the fence into the pasture. The little ones walked right through and the hens flew over. If I am going to keep taking pictures through the glass, I have got to clean my windows and take out the screens!
This afternoon after checking on the broiler chicks I was walking back to the house and saw movement along the back fence. Sure enough - turkeys again! This time it was just one of the hens with her brood of 5 or 6 poults. I couldn't get a good count on the little ones because the grass was taller than they were, and they blend into their surroundings very well. It was so neat to watch them. I belly-crawled around the back yard trying to get good pictures without scaring them too much. Every time I got too close, the hen would squat down into the grass and disappear. One second I could see her and the next she had blended in perfectly. They traveled back and forth the entire length of the back yard until the poults found a place to cross. Then the hen continued searching the fence line for a crossing, I'm not sure why she didn't fly up, but I suppose she wasn't feeling pressured. She finally made it to an area that has electronet, which is more flexible than woven wire. She hopped right through the fence, collected the poults, and off they went. Later this evening, Brian saw this group of turkeys headed back into the yard and saw them meeting up with the other hen and her poults, who were traveling up the driveway toward the house. What a day!
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