We were driving through the woods on dirt roads (looking for rock piles) and came to a flock of turkeys with two or three adults and five chicks.
At first one (or two?) adults moved quickly into the grass, leaving the rest behind.
They were a bit confused.
I drove right up to them and to our surprise the chicks promptly took off to land in branches of nearby trees, while the remaining adult had the most trouble getting off of the ground.
I was sort of pushing the camera button while driving so it is lucky I got this picture.
I've got a funny turkey story. I was hiking in the Berkshires -- Alander Mountain to be exact. It was a hot day, I made the summit, and was heading back down to the trailhead and my car.
ReplyDeleteAll of a sudden I hear something moving around in the leaves by the trail. It didn't sound like a chipmunk so I took a peek. I saw a handful of chicks -- they looked like oversized ugly ducklings -- all milling about along the side of the trail.
It didn't strike me what they were until I heard this blood-curdling shriek from behind me. I turned around and there was the mother turkey with her wings spread nervously pacing back and forth and screaming at me for being too close to her chicks.
Suddenly, she made a bee-line straight for my crotch, and I started running like the dickens down the trail. She chased me for about 1500 feet, all the while pecking at my rear end.
Nice pictures, pwax. Reminded me of once when we saw a flock of turkeys with a peacock in tow. Must have been as close as he could get to his kind of people around here. I imagine that when he spread his tail those females were bowled over!
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