Feed them!

wheres the golden .. hell chase them off ...

see link .. i doubt you need to protect anything ....

ken

https://www.google.com/search?q=wild+turkey+diet&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

No need to feed wild turkeys. Smart resilient birds, their march across the continent (since reintroduction in many states) shows they're fit to derive a living off of field and forest.

Ilovemy...I highly doubt there's anything actionable here on your part. Turkeys are everywhere these days, and yes, I'm sure they're competing with say, deer, for acorns and stuff, but so far anyway, we're not seeing or hearing about landscape plant damage being attributed to these guys.

Anyone know different?

... read up on them, and they eat woody plants!. I never heard that, they mostly eat insects like grasshoppers, fallen fruit, spilled corn, acorns, pet food, etc.

Ken, we gave him to a friend of ours when he was about 5 months old because he wouldn't stop trying to KILL our cats, not play with them, kill them. We tried everything to get him to stop. We sought the help from 2 different vets, sought help from friends who've owned the same type of dog, and we even tried using a shock collar. For some reason, this dog hated cats, period. The guy who took him works for UPS and has a large fenced in yard, where the dog is now enjoying a wonderful life with no cats to bother with.

I don't know why these turkeys like our yard so much, but they're giving hours of entertainment to our cats.

I threw a piece of bread at them, not knowing at the time what they ate, and one of them pecked at it and then ignored it. None of them ate it.

Sam, I don't want them setting up shop here. :( I don't want them roosting on our brand new car either, or eating any of my plants this winter. I've only recently figured out how to get my plants to survive rabbits and voles.

We've been here thirteen years and this is the first time we've had turkeys. We also have a HUGE toad living in our front yard. Every time I open the front door it hops in and we have to put it back outside. It's cute.

They look delicious. If it's bow and arrow hunting season you should get a bow and some arrows. They will leave or they will end up on your dining table and either way you win.

That's how I feel. Our next door neighbor hunts with a bow and arrow. I asked my husband if he would text him to come over and get them, but dh does not want the turkeys killed in our yard.

One was after my forsythia.

They eat bugs! Tons and tons of them. I'd leave them alone and let them clear the yard of them.

They look a bit skinny for Thanksgiving dinner. We have them round here too. Remember that cartoon where the turkey realized he was being fattened up for the wrong reason and went on a panicky exercise program?

I would imagine that they eat the buds on some plants, most birds like sharp tailed grouse, ruffed grouse, etc. do but I have no experience with wild turkeys. Saw a nice tom this spring though, must have been raised and released or escaped, see above LOL.

I also have native turkeys in my area. Hate them. They make a mess of my garden scratching around in the mulch and uprooting young plants. I have had to buy tons of little wire fences to surround the plants to sort of keep the turkeys away!

We have a lot of problem with them digging up small trees and plants too. It seems like it's mostly that they decide to make a nest everywhere I plant something. I haven't seen them eat the plants, but they uproot them and leave them laying there just outside the shallow bowl-shaped place they dig up.

On my farm, these are our worst plant destroying pest except for deer. Voles are probably number three, and wandering dogs seem to finish out the top four.

Stray dogs/cats are a much worse problem. The forsythia looks like a mess anyway, pruning needed.

I say enjoy having them in your yard. We threw them out years ago and now they are reclaiming their territory. What frustrates me about people is they worry about a snail darter and red cockaded woodpecker, but destroy the habitat in their back yards.

I thought that I had a problem with buzzards, when I came back to our new house from a walk and found dozen in the trees in the back yard. Fortunately they only come in those numbers occasionally. You have to admit when soaring over your house they are a very graceful bird.

Same with the wood pecker being de-feathered by the hawk. My first impulse was to save the wood pecker. Then I thought we are feeding the birds, a hawk is a bird; so I let nature take its course.

They left our yard last night. My husband saw them walk off into the Christmas Trees where the lake is only a few feet away.

If they come back I'm just going to fence around my small Lilacs for the winter, to be on the safe side. It would only take a few minutes, and give me some peace of mind, especially after what Brandon said.

Nice video. If we could see the cat's faces, their teeth were prb'ly chattering, tho cats aren't going to go after adult turkeys -- too big.

Toms during mating season can get pretty aggressive toward other animals, even people. Search youtube for turkey attacks.

Don't forget to prune the forsythia ;)

Why?

'Looks like a mess' is a personal opinion. The shrub currently has plenty of space in that informal situation to show its natural arching habit and next spring it will be a fountain of blossom. There is no reason at all to prune it until it begins to show some decline. Then it will need rejuvenation pruning only. And even if ILMT did want a blob instead of a natural looking plant, now is not the time prune Forsythia.

I'll prune the forsythias at the proper time, in the spring, after they're done blooming. I've had a lot going on this summer, in terms of home remodeling, that the growth of my forsythias and/or how they look, was the last thing on my concern list. I let everything go, except I did water them regularly.

I am going to de-weed them though, after the first freeze. I'm not going to risk getting stung by a yellow jacket(s) like I did a few years ago, by pulling weeds in October. Been there, done that.

The forsythia you see in the picture is actually two that grew together. I'm going to separate them. I hate that they grew into one giant monster. That was not my intent! They've been growing so fast, at 4ft + per year that I can't keep up! My daughter asked if they're going to get taller and I told her yes, another 5 ft probably. The look on her face was hilarious.

I adore the fact that I don't have to worry about them getting eaten by voles and rabbits in the winter. And they were the first thing I planted that survived a winter, so I have a soft spot for them.

Floral, you and I posted at the same time.

I don't believe in pruning shrubs into unnatural shapes, or to keep them small. I believe in letting shrubs do their thing. I do, however, want to separate my big forsythia into the 2 shrubs they once were, so in between them I'll prune that area to free up some space. Hopefully, I can get away with doing that. And yes, they have all the space in the world to grow and spread. I thought I planted them far enough apart, but apparently not. They love the space they're in, and they're showing it.

Thanksgiving comes to mind...

That looks like someone's flock of domestic turkeys... not true wild turkeys.

That''s exactly what my husband said. He is convinced, without a doubt, that one of our neighbors down the road owns them, and let them loose because bow and arrow season is going on, and they want to be able to hunt them. Kind of sadistic if you ask me.

They look like the wild turkeys that we have in this area. I would not hunt them with out a Turkey Hunting license.

I believe if someone is growing then they would need a permit. If so it should be public record that can be found a the court house.

Wild turkeys. Sometimes when walking my land, I can almost step on them, hiding in the tall vegetation.

Eat them!

I agree with lucky_p's comment above.

Most of your visitors appear to have too much white in their plumage to be actual non-domestic wild turkeys. Look at sam_md's photo above to see how dark eastern wild turkeys usually are. Your pals look a lot like one of the "heritage" breeds of domestic turkeys, specifically Narragansett. Links below to photos.

Narragansett turkey photo

Eastern wild turkey photo

Not sure if this makes a difference one way or the other.

They won't eat your plants, they snack on grubs and stuff.

These are some wild turkeys that I photographed near Lake Monroe in Indiana. As you can see they are similar in color to the OP pictures. We now live east of Raleigh NC and see simliar colored turkeys in this area.

They're also big grain gleaners in farm country.

Many years ago, I worked in a model home in a new subdivision abutting wooded acreage. I had a turkey who decided to live on the back patio ... just him, alone, for whatever reason. I'd see the rest of the group sometimes, but he always stayed close. (They never bothered the landscaping.)

One morning, I opened the house and went out back to check on him. I found the patio covered in feathers and blood ... so much blood, I had to call in a guy to powerwash the concrete, and even some brick on the house. I was heartbroken, imagining his violent demise. A few days later, I saw him back on the patio, strutting around, looking just fine. I have no idea what happened, but he was apparently the victor.

At my other model house, in a different subdivision, I had a Roadrunner living in the unfenced back yard (which also backed up to acreage). He'd let me get very close. I don't know why our patios attracted big, wild birds. :D

Krnuttle, the wild turkeys in your photo do look similar to the OP's. However, the wing coverts feathers (I circled in red) in wild birds are brown in the photos below, and in the Narragansett domestic breed are stark white. The necks and backs of the Narragansett are very white, while true eastern wild turkeys are shades of brown. The darker birds in the op's photos might be a couple of wild birds that decided to hang out with somebody's loose domestic flock, or they probably are "bronze" heritage domestic turkeys which look really close to a wild bird (see link: bronze turkey ). The heritage breeds of turkeys originated from crosses of domestic and native wild birds so they do look similar. The birds with white wing feathers in the OP's photos are not true eastern wild turkeys, even if they are free ranging out in the wild.

Few thoughts...

http://blog.nature.org/science/2013/11/26/wild-turkey-restoration-the-greatest-conservation-success-story/

Only harm they'll do is dig for bugs. Turkey are just like chickens good for b7g removal seeds an small rocks but when it comes to a small love plant they can kill it from scratching on the roots

They're back! And they're all still alive. Yesterday, they were at my neighbor's house across the street.

They were in the neighbor's driveway and 3 of them were walking around on his new pickup truck. As I drove past it to pull in my driveway I knew the neighbors weren't awake yet because the husband would've blown a gasket.

I waited for the turkeys to walk over to our house but they never did.

I'd say they're roosting close to your house. We don't get turkeys around my house we have a pack of coyotes around 25 members in the pack.

Well, the mystery is over. Bulldog, you hit the nail on the head. I found out who the owner of the turkeys is, it's my neighbor across the road and kitty corner to me. I should have immediately suspected it was him since he lets his dogs runs free indiscriminately. One of his dogs is constantly in my yard, and hangs out in the middle of the road stopping what little traffic we get, several times a week. It's a wonder it hasn't been killed yet.

Anyway, the way I found out was they showed up at my house yesterday and had completely surrounded my car. One was tapping its beak on my front door making all 3 of my cats go berserk. My next door neighbor was outside and I said to him can you take care of them with your bow and arrow. They're going to scratch the hell out of my car. He said they're so and so's turkeys, he got them a month ago. I said why is he letting them loose like this? This is ridiculous.

I have no doubt that the turkey neighbor knows I'm unhappy about these turkeys, but knowing him he's not going to care one single bit.

I can't believe people just let their animals run loose onto other people's property and not think twice about it. Dh joked they're violating the leash law. But it won't be funny when we have a scratched up car. Are livestock allowed to roam free? Aren't there laws for this kind of situation?

What are the livestock or farm animal laws where you are?

It sounds like the turkeys have outworn their welcome!

I'm looking up the laws now.

Thanksgiving is coming

Most states you need to tell him to keep his turkeys off your land. If he doesn't being a domesticated animal that's bread for meat you have the right to shoot them. But before you do check your state laws call a wildlife person have them come check it out.