Backyard turkeys

[27hand]

I know many of you have turkeys cose to where you live.

I've had them below my feeders, in my yard, on my car and pecking away at their reflections on my chrome bumpers.

This morning was a bit different.
My neighbors yard had a group of males and females running together.

I'm not a turkey hunter but thought they run either males and / or females but not together until its turkey love time.

Well, I looked outside and saw this.

2022-03-23_03-22-31 by poofy27, on Flickr

The girl on the car roof has either a broken leg or otherwise injured.
She has been hopping around under my feeders for a week or so.

If she sees me, she moves away but not far till I go away.

Anyone else seeing a bunch of these around?

[Delkal]

I'm not a turkey hunter........

Do you have a shotgun? Spring turkey season is coming up soon so you should be. How close is your nearest neighbor?

[27hand]

Do you have a shotgun? Spring turkey season is coming up soon so you should be. How close is your nearest neighbor?

I would be crossbow only. Neighbors are too close and its almost all residential.

[bogey1]

Wow, cool picture. We have them here in upper darby. They carry weapons though.

[Qtrborecrazy]

They haven*t started big time here yet. They*re coming and going feeding under my bird feeders. Watch out for all the turkey crap on your shoes.

[tallbump]

I live in city limits and there are some right in my neighborhood.

Can't hunt here, but I am planning on going out turkey hunting this spring, if I can get the $ together for a shotgun. Stupid home and car repairs are killing me

[icp4life162005]

I would be crossbow only. Neighbors are too close and its almost all residential.

One of those little crossbow target pistols would be perfect here lol

[Rural Ruger]

Have heard them behind our house (woods) and seen them across the street (fields and woods) a good bit more often lately too. Goes in spurts for us...few good years, then a few with almost none around. About 5 years back a whole flock flew between my porch and garage while I was on the porch (20 yard wide gap)...could've had turkey for dinner for weeks if I'd wanted.

[27hand]

This flock ( actually 2. Male and female) entertain me when it's archery season.

They fly from the hillside across the valley every day at dusk and sometimes stop traffic to walk across the road.

They slowly work.their way up the hill maybe 50 yards from my stand and eventually roost just over a hundred yards out from me .
Every now and then they come pretty close ( bow range) and all walk up to get any seed the birds have dropped.


Fun to watch while I'm waiting for a backyard buck.

The fox and coyotes are nocturnal so I only see them on my cameras.

[Sandcut]

Not many turkeys up here in the northern counties for about 10+ years now. When we moved here in 2000 it wasn't uncommon to see 60+ turkeys a week. But, ever since West Nile virus popped up around 2008-2010, the numbers have been way down. I may only see 6-10 turkeys per year now. From what I've read, the belief is that West Nile is hitting grouse and turkey, due to the temps and the amount of standing water being conducive to mosquito breeding. I don't know if that's been documented to support it, but the timing is about right with when I first started to see dead crows randomly decorating the woods.