Cawk, cawk, cawk, cawk, cawk. That’s the noise I make when calling “my” turkeys. We started with a family of six; two hens and four babies earlier on in the year. They first came for the bird seed and I tried going out and spreading more seed for them. This usually met with the turkeys taking off at a run across the front yard, or squawking like mad with lots of wing flapping until they were out of sight. Slowly they came to trust me. Nothing bad happened to them each time I appeared, so they slowly gained trust in me. I open the door and start talking turkey to them right away, while rattling the food around in the pail. They stop and listen. They cock their heads from side to side. First only one of the hens decided I was okay; the other ran. Two of the babies also thought it was okay to stay close. Now all six don’t go very far, and almost come right up to me.

I’m sure you are thinking I am nuts. Just what Lynne needs is to have yet MORE animals in her care! But the turkeys don’t ask much of me. Just that I don’t forget to spread seed twice daily. Sometimes they visit 3 or 4 times per day. I can hear them clucking in the woods next to our house throughout the day. One day I let the dogs out and they must have been inside our fence as all I could see was flapping wings and dogs looking up into trees. Poor turks. They managed to fly out of the yard safely.

Well, the word must have spread about easy food, because now we have another family of 12 turkeys that have been visiting us. As near as I can tell they have no connection to the family of 6 that we are used. to. They are still skiddish, and the other day when I saw them out there and went out the door with more food, WW3 broke loose. They took off across the yard, and most of them were airborne, like the very devil was after them. Okay, fine. If you can’t tell which side of the lawn your bird seed is buttered on then fly away! I still have some turkey taming to do with them. But, they come now almost every day.

We’ve watched the kids grow nearly every week. They are really getting big now but I have no clue what sex they are. One looks bigger than the others with a different look, so I’m beginning to think it might be a tom. They recently lost the feathering on their heads so they now have that “vulture” look going on which is not particularly attractive. Yet they are so ugly that they’re horribly cute.

I look forward every day to my turkey visit. When they don’t show up at their appointed times I am really sorry! And NO, we have no Thanksgiving plans for them!! Stop those horrible thoughts right now!!