Was in the mid-70s today; not a cloud in the sky.

I was sleeping in when about 10 o'clock this morning the Merriams turkeys were making so much noise I had to get up and look at them.

Looked out the little window of my bathroom, and there they were. I assume it was the same flock that shows up every day to eat the deer food. There are somewhere between 50 and 70 birds in that flock.

They live on top a 300' hill directly across the road from the house.

Anyway, it obviously is turkey breeding season now.

At first I saw a rather average young Tom...he only had about a 4" beard. He had his "fan" in full display and his wattles were brilliant bright red. The hens, playing coy, would run directly over to him one by one. Then when they got within about 4 feet of him they'd veer off and run maybe another 20 or 30 feet. There they would stop and pretend to pick things out of the grass, all the while frequently looking back over their shoulders at the Tom.

Well, that was pretty nice, but the show was just beginning. Next thing I knew, a giant Tom strode into view. I think he was the same one I described here a few weeks ago as weighing probably about 28-30 pounds. Now this sucker, big as he was, also had a beard that literally touched the ground! He was an old bird, by his colouration and obviously knew his way around. No quick moves, no dancing, just slow gracefull moves from one rock-hard almost disdainful pose to another.

After a few minutes a third Tom, almost as big, strode into the tableau. He was obviously younger, as his feathers had a brilliant sheen to them and his whole colouring almost glowed.

Well, I watched them all for a few minutes, then pulled on my clothes and went out to get the paper.

Directly when you step out through our front entry, in the left of the little courtyard is a humongous Japanese Maple. Around here those seldom get over about 4 feet high and maybe 12 feet in diameter (spread of limbs). Ours is about 5'-6" high and maybe 20 feet in diameter.

Anyway, as I stepped out the door about 30 Valley Quail burst out from under the Japanese Maple and just about startled the whatever clean out of me.

Seeing no more birds, I started for the deer feeder to refill it on the way to the paper-box.

WHIRRRR!! Another roughly 30 quail came out from under the maple. Haven't seen that many quail in our front yard in years!!

Went on to the paperbox out at the road, then returned to the front door. as I entered the front yard, a white-tail doe and two fawns looked up at me. They didn't run off, once I said softly "It's okay, it's all right." and walked on past them (within maybe 15 feet).

Well, that was a pretty good start to my day.

Now that it is just before dusk, I just heard the turkeys doing hen talk again, so I looked out my office window. Whole front yard was alive with hens. Looked to the right and there, just beyond the 4' high cyclone fencing, under a large pine tree which is actually slowly tipping the fence over, were all 3 Toms, all in full display, each almost touching the other.

None of the hens were on the toms' side of the fence, but all the hens were watching intently, as if enraptured.

Great way to end the day.

God, just ask me which I prefer, city or country?

I've been out here, retired, for the last 19 years. Sure wish I could live another 19.

Some times creation is so beautiful it makes me catch my breath and almost sob.

I hope your day was as nice as mine.

Thank you for that. Very nice. Very nice...

Judging a gobbler's age is best done by their leg spurs than beard length. Especially in cold climates, those brittle, modified feathers can be broken off by ice and snow.

quote:

Originally posted by onefunzr2:
Judging a gobbler's age is best done by their leg spurs than beard length. Especially in cold climates, those brittle, modified feathers can be broken off by ice and snow.

As if I had a chance to go measure their spur length....anyway, though it got maybe half an inch of snow just once this past winter up on top of the hill where these turkeys live, the snow didn't last more than one-half day on the ground. There were maybe three days of surface ice during the whole winter, where the dew froze on the fallen oak leaves....probably depth of ice averaging less than 1/8" at any given time.

One thing is sure, though...when you see a gobbler so big and so old he is almost literally a "gray-beard" you can damn well bet he is older than one on whom every feather looks brand new and finished with oil for sheen.

As to their actual number of years of age, each, I could care less. I just really enjoy seeing them (and all the other animals) here.

On this and the surrounding property we have, squirrels, woodchuck, 'possums, raccoons, foxes, bobcats, coyotes, mountain lions, deer, elk, black bear, salmon, steelhead, cutthroats, sturgeon, both large and small mouth bass, shad, ducks, geese, a very few ring-necks, ruffed and blue grouse, quail, turkeys, band-tail pigeons, golden eagles, several kinds of falcon, hawks, and probably a bunch of stuff I've forgotten to mention.

We also have a river, our own wells, plenty of oak, madrone, and other trees to keep the winter fires fed, natural sub-surface pasture irrigation (we first hit water at 7' when boring our last well...hit it in 6 more strata while going down to 215'). We don't seed our pasture at all, but we still get volunteer oats, clover and grass up to about 4' high every year...enough we could hay it if we wanted to, but we just let the horses, etc., eat it. They don't seem to mind.

All in all, not the worst place an ol' country-boy like me could have retired to.

Luckily we do not yet have wolves, though they have been showing up recently about 100 miles south of us.

Great post & great writing.

Any chance of a 100 acre property with a cabin near by for me to rent for the rest of my life?

Wonderful words and imagery. Thank you.

All I'm saying is you can't judge a gobbler's age by the length of his beard, same as you can't judge age by the shinyness of the feathers. Obviously, one had not molted recently.

Great description of your day!

I could see it.