A Conversation about Turkeys

The hunters among you know about the game seasons for turkeys. I have attached a link to the NYS DEC explaining the whole thing for everybody else. 

My interest in turkeys is more as neighbors than as food. When I first moved to the Catskills I had rarely seen turkeys in the wild. The first one I saw I mistook for a flying laundry bag. It was strutting along the road in front of my house when something spooked it. The sudden motion caught my attention and when I glanced toward it, I thought I was seeing a khaki duffle bag being tossed up into the air. He flapped a couple of times, landed, and opted to run instead. This was an introduction to the lack of grace the turkey shows in its aerial efforts. Since then I have observed them settling in at night.

They are comical and clumsy, but they persevere and always manage to get into their roost.

Way back when the colonists arrived, the turkey quickly became a regular part of the grocery list. They were soon a part of the folklore of Americana. There's even a rumor (false) that Ben Franklin wanted the turkey to be the national bird instead of the bald eagle. Franklin did have several observations about the turkey. He described it as a morally superior bird to the eagle, and uniquely an American bird because it was only known in the American continents. The Bald Eagle was nothing special because eagles were common everywhere. Franklin said the turkey was “courageous and respectable,tho a little vain and silly.” I, too, have become fond of the turkey as a neighbor. It seems to be as old Ben described... courageous and respectable, vain and silly.

I'm fondest of the silly part, I guess. I laugh out loud when I watch them fling themselves at the chosen roost tree, and when a flock of various sized turkeys is interrupted crossing a road. They don't just scatter. Each one tries something different. The only way for a driver to deal with this chaotic behavior is to relax and wait a minute. Remember, we're passing through their home.  

Another thing I enjoy about turkeys is their sense of community. You expect them to stay in flocks when the chicks are small, but the flock is the thing if you're a turkey. Having said that, I must clarify: depending on season, there can be bachelor flocks, family flocks with chicks, mixed flocks, and even solitary turkeys. Just like with humans, it usually has to do with the demands of mating and child rearing. In the Spring, there are even  flocks mingling with herds of deer for the same forage. A favorite spectacle is the mating dance of the male when he fluffs up into a magnificent spectacle for the ladies to admire. 

Their feeding varies according to the season. For two years, I watched the regular visits of a mama with her little brood appear from the woods. We called the mama Buttercup because she carefully nipped the tops off of every buttercup in the field.  In the summer I have surprised a flock of as many as thirty turkeys relaxing on top of an old wooden pergola. Once they spot me, they dismount from the structure and strut off, looking around as if they didn't pass through here a couple of times a month.

If you have any comments or suggestions for future columns, contact me at jeanthepipper@duck.com. 

Here's DEC info for hunters. https://dec.ny.gov/things-to-do/hunting/turkey/seasons