I'm pretty sure if they have babies they won't be in a flock. The hens go off by themselves when they raise them so maybe you should be just as wary if you see a single hen. I'd never heard of anyone being attacked but will be more cautious myself now. Gardenweed is right, they're BIG when their wings are outstretched. I pulled in my driveway once and one flew up in front of my car only a couple feet from my windshield and I nearly had a heart attack. lol I haven't had any damage in my garden that I know of but don't have as many as you. I see them in our field but they rarely come up in my yard. I suspect they could wipe out a lot of seedlings in a hurry if they thought they looked appetizing but rabbits can too. Turkeys DO eat grasshoppers and that's a big plus. I wonder if they eat ticks. (hope so) It's still amazing to me how common they are now. Ten or twelve years ago, I had never seen a wild turkey at all. Now I see them almost daily if I'm out driving. Loved the videos. I think all the "attacks" were just people being followed. I'd be running too. lol Hope they won't flog you the way a rooster can. That's something to take seriously. Good luck Docmom. I think you may need to protect your seedlings with wire mesh or something. It might be easier to plant them out in a nursery bed for awhile spaced closely so they're easier to protect. Or at least protect your most precious seedlings until you get an idea of how destructive the turkeys and other critters are going to be.

rhizo_1- Makes sense to post in the wildlife forum... sorry about the categorization! I was so infuriated at the time I posted this that I had a hard time getting past using only very nasty words to describe the feathered terrorists; "pest" was the very nicest of them. I contacted my local Fish and Game office and left a message. Hopefully something can be done about the darn birds. Kimmsr- I never knew that! Thanks for the info. I guess I never thought of it, as birds (particularly my chickens) have their favorite foods, but you learn something every day. I guess the garlic slop I made yesterday and spread around won't do much. At least it's a conversation starter, as the smell of garlic is wafting around all the flower beds. The creepy garden tactics will have to wait for the deer to come down from the hills in a few months =) Thanks for the help!

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.

Wow, that's a big bird to come looking for peanuts, and a very tame one at that. It seems to trust you a lot to get that close. I like to feed the scrub jays peanuts, but it might be nice to have a big turkey come around. My two Chicago Figs got too big to bring inside, and didn't make it through the winter even though I tried covering them. :-( Enjoy yours! It's nice you took the time to post this.