Around noon five of the large bronze-backed birds were milling about in the power line right of way and eyeing the seed. They were wary of approaching because snow melting off the roof was making quite a racket in the downspout. I was careful to keep well back from the windows and merely reached the camera around the edge to snap a few pictures. The birds were in a state of constant alert with one bird acting as the look out at all times.
From Terry’s sewing room window. The birds are about 20 feet from the house.
From the kitchen window.
There were five in all (not the six I thought the other day) and they all appear to be males. Each sported a “beard” that hung down from the chest a good six-seven inches. The coloring on their back feathers is quite amazing. One wandered over to the driveway and was, therefore, not back lit as these photos are and you could see the bronze sheen on the feathers with hints of green as well. Their wing feathers are banded in shades of brown, tan, gray and black. Their heads were featherless and quite reddish in color. No blue yet but as the mating season approaches that will also appear on the neck and head.
They fed for nearly three hours and then one decided to try and feed off the wooden tray (beneath the little peaked roof). That didn’t work too well as the tray is delicately balanced on the ends and it tumbled to the ground. That probably sent the entire group flying into the woods. I didn’t witness their departure but I did hear the tray clatter to the ground. With luck, they will be back again tomorrow since they obviously like the sunflower seeds as much as the redpolls, mourning doves and chickadees do.
3 comments:
imagine if you had a few game cams set to photo and video. might find some nocturnal critters too. that pole in the background could be one of the three spots..........33" of fresh snow at the bolthole, little more than waste deep in the woods
amazing. There are turkeys all over the east and south west now when fifty years ago they were just about gone in most places..a couple of years ago I saw a big flock on my sister and brother-in-law's ranch in Oklahoma..I was sitting on their fron porch and counted 57 crossing the road and there were some that had hit the brush before I started counting..and something spooked what was left and they flew ...I wouldn't doubt that there was over a hundred in the flock..
"bricklayer", I thought of putting a cam or two out there but then realized I'd have to get much, much bigger memory cards for them. This morning there were 10 squirrels (red, black and gray) out there running about. When they got chased from the feeders, the small birds (redpolls, grosbeaks, mourning doves, etc.) came in by the hundreds. The memory on even a 2 gig card would be filled and the battery depleted as the camera took picture after picture and all before the turkeys show up about noon.
GuyK: We have a dairy farm down the road that has a flock of at least 100 turkeys that show up every day in the back field. It was funny to watch the farmer delay bringing the cows in fro their morning milking because he didn't want to spook the birds the week before fall turkey season.
Watching the males strut their stuff in the spring is one amazing display.
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