Some animals never show themselves in public, or at least they wait until everybody is asleep to come out, such as raccoons and possums. Though I often see wild turkeys during the day, I never see their young, and my guess is that they tend to stay hidden.
Not all youngsters can hold their own in the wild, even with both parents standing watch. Each year, Canada geese at our office complex lose youngsters to foxes and other predators.d It’s part of nature’s plan.
By the time the geese reach that gawky adolescent stage, however, even the foxes are so turned off by their gangly looks that predatory season comes to an abrupt end.
Well, this week I saw a female turkey crossing the road with two youngsters, so I decided to look up a photo, since I couldn’t shoot a picture and drive. Here it is, along with some other turkey photos:
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Wild_Turkey/media-browser/65616051
Of course, the crazy thing about turkeys is their tendency to nest in trees. When I pulled up the photo of the youngster on a branch, I laughed. We’re used to seeing them on the ground pecking away, or on a plate being pecked at by hungry Thanksgiving hordes (let me qualify that: the adult birds, not the youngsters). Turkeys are just not regular nature subject matter. I don’t think programs like PBS’ acclaimed Nova would do a show devoted to the turkey. I welcome you to prove me wrong.
There may be some readers out there who scoff, because they’re used to seeing turkeys doing things the average person would consider unusual. Hey, I get out much, but just not where there are turkeys in trees.
So I crossed seeing young turkeys off my bucket list. I still have petting a bison on there. I stand a good chance of doing that, since they don’t escape into trees.
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