By Glen Wunderlich
Charter Member Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA)
It’s been utterly fascinating to learn about wild turkeys’ tendencies and habits over the past few years. That’s because we enjoy good numbers of them and that makes live education available. One of the oddities I’ve noticed – yet one crucial to the big birds’ survival – is how the hens can disappear from what was previously common ground. And, so it has been for the past month or so.
Three males – one young longbeard, one jake and one double-bearded jake – have been stealing the show without any help from the females anyway. Pecking order has become defined and dominance is part of life, no matter what position a given bird assumes. Watching them chase each other around a tree is pure no-cost entertainment! All this “nonsense” helps to define their own hierarchy, which is separate from that of the females. And, that brings me to my next observation this drizzly morning: The hens are back!
At first thought, one may assume something’s amiss, when hens that were commonly seen in the springtime seem to vanish. That’s because all the breeding behavior we see when hunting is over. Not only are the gobblers not gobbling, but the hens had become most secretive locating nesting sites.
Now the family groups are scavenging together in familiar, safe territory known well to the mother hens. It was eye-opening to watch the little ones scratch in the pine straw – something programmed in their computer chip. But, these young birds had been away from the nest for weeks and by the looks of them, they’ve already experienced flying to some degree. They leave the nest a day or two after hatching and a mere two weeks later can fly short distances. Add another week and they’re flying to higher roosting levels and have changed diets from mostly insects to more plant matter.
And, oh how they love a clover field. It typically offers the best of insects and vegetation, but not right now; hens are still going to be protective and cautious guarding their respective families. Accordingly, the mother hens seem to know their groups are still susceptible to both airborne and ground attacks from predators. And, although I spotted several hens with over 20 combined offspring, they were distinct families religiously controlled by the mother hens in familiar conifer cover.
Already, more food is falling from above as mulberries hit the ground in huge numbers, courteous of the spring-long, stress-producing drought. These sweet morsels are a bane to homeowners who allow them to grow too close to anything they don’t want to become purple. But, in the field, the trees (not bushes like in the nursery rhyme) grow relatively fast and strong. Not only do they make super firewood, but myriad wildlife – including young and adult turkeys – enjoy the abundant, nutritious feast.
Various groups of turkeys can be seen within a mile or so of their home range, which is how much they tend to walk in their daily routines. It sure was uplifting to see the circle of life unfolding, as the young turkeys were shown their new territory.
