HELP! Wild Turkey explosion!
TruNorth7
12 years ago
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rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
12 years agoRelated Discussions
wild turkeys and wildflower seed
Comments (5)gardenin, the Scarecrow motion activated sprayer works great on deer, crows, dogs, cats, herons...and I suspect turkey but I can't tell you that from experience, the only wild turkeys around here were re-introduced a few years ago and they don't seem to have really established yet. It needs to be connected to a water source (hose) so can't be used in freezing weather. Flash tape and bird netting are two things that are recommended for deterring them, but remember they roost in trees - if you are trying to protect a woodland planting you might have to get creative with the netting or you would have them flying up and over it....See MorePipevine Swallowtail Explosion
Comments (8)Sherry, I love Pipevine Swallowtails, but if I ever raise any more, it's going to have to be in the big cage or else just raise a dozen or two in the small plastic containers. I like to watch them because they're kind of comical, and so I had wanted to raise a lot...BUT when you raise a lot like that it really gets to be a grind, and I was resenting that I wasn't getting much of anything else done around here. I'm glad to hear that they can raise themselves. Then I won't feel so guilty leaving lots of them on the vines. The ones that are out there are on their own. As far as I know there are no cats yet, but I think there are tons of eggs on the vines. Hopefully the vines will be enough to take all of them to adulthood. Every time I went outside this week, there was a female flying around the pipevine laying eggs. Speaking of the pipevine, thank you very much for that information about the pipevine liking lime. It's funny that you said that because today I just sent my husband downtown for some lime to put in my flower beds. A lot of sourgrass comes up in my flower beds/gardens and since I remember reading that it favors acidic soil (which I think ours must be after several years of adding mulch), I want to make the soil here more alkaline. Now that I know pipevines like limestone, I'm going to put some of the lime in the soil around the pipevines. I forgot to mention that I've had at least half a dozen PVS that couldn't make it out of their pupas. Do you have that problem? I don't include those in my released count. So far we've released 160, and I haven't counted how many are left, but because of the deformed ones I've had, I'm pretty sure our count will be under 200. I'm glad that most of them make it though. It's just that I thought it was strange and a higher than "normal" count of deformed ones. I brought all of the eggs in that were on the Baptisia australis, including the ones on the filaments, so then I'll be able to see what they turn out to be. I remember someone talking about that kind of eggs some time ago, but I don't recall what creature comes out of them. Maybe I should even move them into a separate container in case whatever it is preys on cats. I've been so busy lately that I haven't even gotten a chance to look in on the eggs/cats. I thought I'd only have the WIDs to raise for now (excluding the PVS that I'm leaving outside), but today when I was taking the flowers off of the rue (if I don't, I end up with lots of little plants coming up in the spring), I found 3 BST cats that are 2nd-3rd instar. I hope they weren't parasitized by wasps. When I raised some a few years back, I ended up with 4 wasps the next spring. I don't know what instar those cats were in when I found them; maybe they were bigger cats than these are that I just found. I've seen Monarchs here several times this year, but as far as I know, I don't have any eggs on the milkweed yet. I have over 100 tropical milkweed plants in the garden, about 20 in pots, 24 butterfly weed plants in the garden, and about 40 purple milkweed plants that I'm just starting out with this year in 3-gallon pots. I just hope that those will do well in the pots. I've never tried them before. I grow swamp milkweed in pots with no problem. I'm really hoping that these milkweed plants get used this year. Cathy...See Moregender of Eastern Wild Turkey?
Comments (6)This is definitely a hen. You can tell by the head. Males would be much brighter red and blue. The beard in the front of the chest will be on males. The length of it depends on age. Females are much more brown and males more black. All Turkeys have that thingy on their head. You can tell the sex of a Turkey by the poop and the tracks. The females are a circular clump and the males looks like the letter J. I've always wondered if you could tell on some other species birds as well. With the tracks the females tracks are longer than wide with the middle toe the longest. The males have equal length toes and tracks are about as wide as they are long. Hope this helps Cathy...See MoreWild turkeys
Comments (6)I hope they are busy eating bugs and not crops. Or engaging in their always entertaining mating dance rituals. I love wild turkeys and have been seeing them pretty often lately. I've definitely seen more males than females this year, and that has been true most years. I wonder if the females hide? A female wild turkey with an injured leg hung out with our friendly doe, Hey Baby, and her twins all summer and autumn. They visited my compost pile, along with their herd of 5 to 7 other deer, every evening in summer looking for something good to eat. Hey Baby is less scared of me than the other deer are and will come almost uncomfortably close to me when she sees me headed for the compost pile. When I come out with a bucket, she knows there may be something good in it to eat. By winter, the wild turkey's leg had healed and she was walking on it again (albeit with a limp) instead of hopping, but she still traveled with the deer herd. Maybe they made her their honorary mascot. I used to go out in the evening and put a little pile of hen scratch out for the injured wild turkey and she'd come eat it as soon as I went back indoors. If I forgot to feed her, she came and stood by the pickup and stared at the back door, of the house as if willing me to come out and feed her. I also had a pan of water out there for her and she drank from it several times a day. She left the deer herd in March so presumably she returned to the flock for mating season. Some years I hear the wild turkeys more than I see them and other years I see them more than I hear them. I notice them most when working in the back garden as that is closer to the part of our property that they tend to roam....See MoreKimmsr
12 years agoTruNorth7
12 years agonancyjane_gardener
12 years agorhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
12 years agoKimmsr
12 years agonancyjane_gardener
12 years agomorz8 - Washington Coast
12 years agorhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
12 years agojosko021
10 years ago
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