Any turkey hunters??????
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They are there, because there are hens in the area, and this time of the year the Tom's are strutting trying to entice the hens to breed. The Toms will compete & spar with each other until one shows dominance. That's the bird a hen may breed with.
This will happen until someone in camouflage sneaks into the area just before daylight, and snaps a cap on his big butt when he flies down from the roost.
Our season here in NY doesn't start until 1 May.
Trinity +++0 -
We live north of Philly - just north of amico island on the Jersey side of the Delaware river adjacent to its riparian confluence with the rancoacas creek...
Not to far south of the Burlington bridge / not to far north of the tacony Palmyra bridge...
The yard on this dead and cul-de-sac backs onto state set aside green acres park land - a commercial rail line is close aboard / the public transport river line operates passenger transit on it during the day and freight rolls overnight...
After WWII a vet farmer who had land in delanco and was raising turkeys as livestock for commercial sale ran afoul of the banks and a bad economy and he went bust...
Rather than allowing the revenue men take his flock he released his turkeys into the wild - along with some Cornish game hen...
Believe it or not tucked away in this little corner town off the beaten path they prospered and became profligate in nature...
We are now infested with turkeys - have been since I was a boy...
They used to close the town down for two days each year and block off the roads and rails and close the schools to allow a cull hunt that controlled the population somewhat but as the area developed hunting was no longer allowed...
Coyotes and some bobcat sized felines helped control them but a bounty on both through the state eliminated them as a predatory threat...
So we have lived under turkey occupation and infestation for quite awhile - cars and tractor trailers and trains and light rail hit turkeys on a daily basis...
There was a push for a bow hunt / primitive weapons season including muzzle loading shotgun but both failed to get approved.
We do have small predatory cats like bobcats or ocelots again in the parks and on amigo island and they are eating turkeys but they seem to breed slowly and prefer an uncrowded range of operations...
No coyotes killed for state bounty since the late 90's.
Bears are using the Bristol bridge at night to cross from the Pennsylvania side - some showed up in downtown delran (made the news) but since they failed to pay the bridge tolls they were tranquilizer captured and repatriated...
So we still have tons of Tom's.
Mike
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30 or so years ago Michigan was trying to establish a hunting population of turkeys. Ultimately they were very successful but had a few problems at the beginning with domestic/wild hybrids. I would come home from work to find these hybrids perched on the peak of my garage. They don't do asphalt roofing shingles much good when they slide down off the roof. If they were in the yard and driveway when I pulled in they wouldn't even get out of the way of my vehicle. One day figuring I needed to put a stop to this I put some firecrackers in the car. When I got home, there they were. I pulled up next to them and tossed a firecracker about 5 feet from the half dozen standing next to the drive. When it went off they flapped their wings a couple of times and one went over and pecked at the smoke curling up from the grass. I swear these were the stupidest critters on the planet. Fortunately we have a healthy population of foxes, possums, raccoons and various aerial predators. It took a little while but the predators got fat and the turkeys with the domestic/stupid genes have been eliminated. Bob 0 -
Next to the house yesterday
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