Sight of the day: backyard... Big Mommy trukey with a dozen chicks...

[poodlesrule]

A few minutes ago, in my backyard: a big female turkey, with a dozen or more chicks.

Chicks are the size of an apple with tiny legs, and they troll behind at what seems like 60 mph..!

Quite sweet.

This is a suburban area, but fortunately, on this side of the street there is pretty much no fencing in the deep, narrow backyards. Perfect fot them to roam around and feed. Until the local foxes get wind of it.
I saw a fox take a nap in the sun last year... quite a sight.

[Spudman]

Cool. But, where is the photo? :confused:

I've already seen our turkey flock too while out on a bicycle ride. I didn't have a camera with me that time but I'll get them the next time. It's the same dozen or so seen here.
http://www.thefret.net/showthread.php/18905-You-turkeys?p=211781&viewfull=1#post211781

[poodlesrule]

Cool. But, where is the photo? :confused:

argh, Flickr Ui s*cks..

[Spudman]

Try Photobucket.

[Tig]

Flickr works well for me. Just make sure the photo or the set it is in has been set to be viewed by "Anyone" and not private.

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5272/7163111708_5a2328b0d2.jpg

[poodlesrule]

Turkey and chicks (http://flic.kr/p/c39TsQ)

[Tig]

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7104/7244291456_0ee12995d6_b.jpg
:D

[Spudman]

Turkey and chicks (http://flic.kr/p/c39TsQ)

Way cool. I didn't know they made turkeys that small. Kind of like Peeps.

[mapka]

Wild Turkey... Awesome bird and not a bad sippin whiskey! :-)

[poodlesrule]

Update: as per yesterday's sighting, the chicks have doubled in size!

[Spudman]

Hopefully they are eating all the bugs that would otherwise be making their way into your house.

[poodlesrule]

Update: as per yesterday's sighting, the chicks have doubled in size!

Well, this is now September, and a recent sighting would indicate that there are only two surviving chicks, which have grown to 1/3 adult size...

This morning, the flock of full-grown, a good seven or eight of them, hung around the backyard - One of them was standing in the (knee-high+) birdbath... big guy! That explains why the birthbath concrete pan was knocked off a few weeks ago. We thought it may have been the black bear roaming around a neigbor town..!

That very same bear is famous for leaving Central Mass., travelling east looking for a mate, swimming across the Cape Cod canal, and continuing on all the way out to the tip of the narrow cape, becoming a celebrity. Obligatory bumper sticker "Cape Cod: Bear left!"