Turkeys! All of you.....

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webbie

Seasoned Moderator
Hearth Supporter
Nov 17, 2005
12,165
Western Mass.
Yeah, they are back....
Picking along right in front of our house in the cul-de-sac circle....
 

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OH, yeah - they are making a come-back... not sure why - but this year really seemed to be good for them - I'm seeing them all over the place here. The last 2 years - you would not see many at all (coyotes). Last week - I was heading to work and had to stop for a small flock crossing the road - one of the smaller jakes tried to fly, but didn't have enough room - he hit the driver's side window, and scampered up across the roof of the truck, caught his breath, I think, and then went off the other side and caught up with the rest of them - good thing my window wasn't open at the time.
 
Neat pics Boss..
I was going to a job in riverside nj, and a whole bunch just stood in the middle of the road. They didn't want to move. It's nice to see a healthy population.
 
Back when I was building houses, we worked on a family farm rebuilding the main farmhouse. Every morning there would be at least 150 turkeys in the pasture across the road. The owners were a really nice older couple, told us "shoot all you want". Ate a lot of turkey that winter!

We joke that the best turkey call around here is the sound of a manure spreader- they hear that and come a'runnin'.

They're not as bad as the Canada Geese, they're just big flying rats now. When I was younger, I never saw alot of these animals in the wild, now they're everywhere. Porcupines, bear, coyote, bobcats, turkeys, you name it. Good to see them all, wish we had more that ate humans, though. It'd make hunting a challenge, maybe keep some of the "Cabela's Models" out of the woods.
 
Making a comeback here, too. Even in towns surrounding Paterson, which is a major city. There have also been reports of turkey attacks. The males can be aggressive have very sharp claws. I've also noticed an increase in bears, falcons, rabbits, foxes and frogs. Glad to see them back though.
 
Turkeys Attack!!!! Club sammiches gone wrong!!!! Hehe.

I have some pictures of all the bears we've seen this summer while kayaking, but they were taken with my cell camera, and fall into the "see that black smudge? that's the bear" category. Christmas time should bring me a new waterproof Pentax camera that I can take on my adventures. I would love to get pictures of all the eagles and ospreys. I was 10 feet away from the biggest beaver I've ever seen this summer (go ahead with the puns!). He wasn't afraid of me at all, just ambled into the river and swam slowly upstream. It was right in our camp, kept expecting to wake up to my friend screaming in the night because the beaver was eating his leg or something. Makes me glad I sleep in a hammock!

Two weeks ago a friend got some pictures of a young bear swimming across the river, that was pretty funny to watch.

We used to have rumors of bobcats that the Game Commission denied vehemently, now that there are pictures of bobcats in the newspaper sitting in local yards, and you can apply for a permit to hunt them, I guess they really were here all along! The new thing is mountain lions- same reaction from the PGC. I have heard from people I trust that have seen them, people who know their wildlife. One friend claims a neighbor got pictures of one in the field across from his house, waiting to see those, maybe this weekend. The WCO's would tell us "they're like UFO's- everyone has seen one, but no one has proof". I'd really like to see them eat those words, and it looks like they will. They get pretty defensive when asked "well, if we bring the you the carcass of one of these "non-existent" animals, how can you fine us?".

Just really nice to see all the animals making a comeback, hope it continues.
 
Metal said:
"Good to see them all, wish we had more that ate humans, though."

You evidently don't have the herds of Chupacabra like we do around here.

Oh, we do, they just stay in the trailer parks where they belong! ;)
 
Ain't in season yet, around here and I realize they were in the culdesac....but my son's air rifle shoots 1200 fps. I believe if they were in season I might want to thin that line just a bit.
 
we have the same mountain lion arguments going on here in CT. people are swearing to see them , but no legitimate pictures yet. DEP is fighting their existence tooth and nail.
meanwhile, bears, moose, and bobcats are all now confirmed alive and well in CT.
 
The Michigan DNR has been denying the existence of a resident cougar/puma/panther/mountain lion population for a long time now. When confronted with physical evidence, they claim it's just an escaped pet. As elsewhere, if they admit a population exists then they have to use scarce resources to survey and manage it. But just about everyone has seen one.
 
They are making a comeback for one reason and one reason only, hunters.
The Wild Turkey Federation started catching and re-releasing Turkeys into areas where they were non-existent within their historical range. It is one of the more remarkable wildlife comebacks there has ever been.
 
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