Monday, December 31, 2012

Wild Life

While it is New Year's Eve, that's not the kind of exaggerated fun I'm referring to but rather our (over?) abundance of wild creatures in the neighborhood.  Our deer are in such good condition, looking so fuzzy and round that they almost look like stuffed toys.  It was all Peg could do to not walk outside and give their black noses a squeeze today.  I'm beginning to believe that they'd stand still for her too.  The deer often bed down at night in our yard and need to be shooshed out of our way in the morning when we leave for work.

Looking out the windows of the house, no matter the direction, it's impossible to see an area of snow covered field or pasture that hasn't been penetrated with deer and/or turkey tracks; virgin snow doesn't last long around here!

This afternoon the turkeys rediscovered our apple trees, it seems they found the crabapples the most enticing. They went after them with vigor and then one of the birds hopped up into the adjacent apple tree and started shaking the big ones down that hadn't yet fallen.

At least the turkeys don't seem to be as hard on our apple trees as the raccoons are on our cherry trees.  I'll have to get more serious this year about creating some sort of better barrier.  An electric fence worked one year but it was a lot of work.  With two wires 6" and 8" off the ground, we managed to harvest that season's cherries.  Last summer, about a day before we were ready to pick, I walked out of the house and saw an entire family of bandits in the tree.  By morning, the only thing left was the mess they left behind, a few broken branches with not one single sign of a red cherry left in the tree.  It's too bad they can't be trained.








13 comments:

  1. Coop:

    Mmmmm, are those "butterball" turkeys ?

    we have racoons here in the City and they can be dangerous. they live in the park around the corner. They used to always tip our garbage cans over looking for food

    bob
    Riding the Wet Coast
    My Flickr // My YouTube


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    1. Bob, these birds aren't quite white enough to be Butterballs but they're sized correctly due to the corn and beans they eat. I've got the outside cat food stored in a container with 50 lbs (23 kg) holding the cover on. So far, Coop (1) and racoons (0) but that could change anytime.....they are wiley creatures.

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  2. Wild turkeys in the trees, I didn't know they could fly that well..

    Happy New Year!

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    1. Richard, they much prefer gliding to actual flying but when forced, they are able to gain altitude. It's fun watching their long, slow descent from tree branches when safe conditions allow.

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  3. Happy New Year! You obviously spotted very dangerous looking wildlife ;-)

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  4. Sonja, these are very scary birds....I didn't include the photos of that nearest bird staring back at me behind the window glass :)

    I do know that they've become quite aggressive in some urban areas though we've not seen it here.

    Happy New Year to you!

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  5. A heart-stopping event is having a wild turkey fly over your car hood or in front of your scooter/cycle. Like a B-52. Just don't mess with turkeys on land or air!

    I'd say those turkeys now taste like the entire Thanksgiving meal! Right down to the apple pie!

    Best wishes for this New Year.

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  6. Nice call Martha, it didn't even dawn on me that a complete meal was staring back at me!

    You are right, they've flown far too close to me while riding the back roads. We even surprised an eagle one day back in a deep valley; I was sure it and Dave's helmet would make contact. The poor bird had to circle back for what had been in its talons.

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  7. Those are some big Turkeys. I knew they'd roost in trees, but that one looks a little big for the tree. We have quite a few around here too. It's not uncommon to see them walking along side the roads. Mom, Dad, and close to a dozen offspring.

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    1. If past Springs have been typical, we'll easily see flocks, with Showing Toms, of 30-40 in the newly planted fields. I can still remember when my Jr. High Science Teacher was obsessed with the fact that the MN DNR had reintroduced them in the Whitewater Refuge to our south. Mom has seen them on her street, located in a first ring St. Paul suburb. You should see what they do to a cornfield back in an isolated corner.

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  8. Cool pictures of the turkeys. I always enjoy seeing wildlife and nature pictures.

    We don't see many turkeys around our house but we have a family of raccoons living in the giant sequoia in our back yard. They sure leave a mess at the base of the tree and we can always tell when they've been into someone's cherry tree. We have a tree farm behind us but for some reason they prefer our tree.

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  9. Brandy, I just got in, was outside feeding the birds and the cats (almost sounds wrong?). The finches, chickadees, junkos, cardinals all use proper birdfeeder etiquette; the turkeys fly up, give it a good whack, then enjoy what they've managed to shake loose, lazily eating on the ground.

    It's snowing so lightly that the minuscule flakes almost seem confused whether or not they should go back up or settle to the ground. I'm sure that some of them are fighting authority.

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