It's great that you actually got a picture. A few years ago we went 4 wheeling in the national forest and I heard them, but never got to see one. Good picture.

gee, i thought you were talking about bourbon.

it is close to thanksgiving you know.

nice pic.

william

The Mo conservation dept. had a time getting a wild turkey that would survive. Many trys were not successful. They should get credit for their success. I see turkeys when I go over to my mothers farm and on the road on the way there. I hear them here but don't see them. It is a wonder to me that they can live in the wild. We used to hatch a few bronze turkeys in an incubator. Little chickens are tough; if a baby turkey gets wet or cold soon it is drooping its wings and then dies. We also used to treat for black head; I wonder how the wild ones avoid that?

Chris, that was a lucky shot. They are hard to get because they start running on the ground when they spot you.

We are surrounded with wild turkeys. I think DH sees them most times he checks the cattle. We saw a large flock yesterday in one of the neighbor's pasture.

I took this shot a few weeks ago just next to our place.
I do think there are lot more than there used to be. We stopped on the road and I took the picture from the truck.

What great pictures. We have a good population of wild turkeys here too in these neck of the woods. I have a 5 mile drive off the main hwy to the far end of our subdivision to get to my house. While it may seem like a long drive to some I so enjoy it. I often get lucky and will see a rafter (I thing thatÂs the correct grouping) of turkeys. But they sure scatter fast. Haven't seen much deer lately since we've had a heavy crop of acorns compared to last year (that's all I can compare it to being new to the area) and it seems to keep the deer in the woods and off the beaten paths for now. I'm sure that will change once hunting season starts.

Pam
Lake of the Ozarks

Glenda that is a very pretty spot and those are great pictures of the turkeys.

Those are two great photos! Thanks for sharing.
I suppose they know where the safe havens are, since the hunting season for turkey doesn't end until Oct 31. Better to be shot with a camera, than a lead pellet!

Wildlife around here are going to be hungry this winter, unless they like berries and seed, I have 3 huge Oaks near the house and there are no acorns on them this year, for the first time in more than 40 years.
Squirrels have already stripped the few berries from the Dogwoods and are shucking Pine cones for those tiny nuts and making a terrible mess underneath the trees.
The Hollies are loaded with berries and they are beginning to turn, but those are reserved for the Robins and Cedar Wax Wings (I hope!).
If we have a hard winter, guess I'll have to stock some seed and corn for the birds and critters.
Rb

I wish we had Cedar Wax Wings. I think they are beautiful birds. I have never seen one in the wild before.

We supposedly have Cedar Waxwings year round here but I've only seen one once in my life. It was one my mother found dead in her yard. : ( They eat lots of different kinds of berries so I'm sure I have some kind of food for them. Maybe they just haven't found it yet. I planted some deciduous hollies several years ago but I don't know if any of them are still there.

My hackberry trees have lots of berries on them this year. That might be what the turkeys were going after if the berries are falling to the ground. There's still a lot on the trees right now. There's practically no pulp on those things or they would be great to snack on. They're sweet.

Razorback - What kind of oak trees do you have? This article has a good explanation (close to the bottom of the page). The late freeze we had in '07 would affect even this year's acorns if they're some type of red oaks. But I've also read that oak trees will produce more acorns if they're stressed so good weather can make them produce less.

Here is a link that might be useful: When there are no acorns

christie.....
One is a White Oak (Q. alba), the other two are Water Oaks (Q. nigra), which usually are loaded with tons of small acorns each year. By comparison, the White Oak has many less each year, except for the two stressful years following a tremendous lightning strike and it produced so many that I had to rake them up and haul them away in garbage cans. They were several inches deep under the tree.
One of the Water Oaks has Mistletoe growing in the very top of it. It produces berries all year, so ,maybe the birds and squirrels will have a fallback source of food.
Rb

You guys have solved a mystery for me! Last year I was on a walk and this bird swooped across me and landed on a branch. It was so beautiful that it stopped me in my tracks. I stared and watched it as it was watching me. I couldn't get over the mask it was wearing. I came home and looked in my bird books and couldn't find it. At that point I thought maybe it was someone's pet that got out. Reading this post I had to Google "Cedar Wax Wings"....and there it was. Mystery solved! Thanks.

Pam