In this blog, the wild turkeys return to West Cobb! The young turkeys are getting larger but all of them are still very timid!
After only a few weeks, we captured the image above... the poults are growing very quickly and look bigger each day! Turkey update for July 2, 2022: Okay, okay, they never left! They have been covering more ground though as the poults (we jokingly called them “turklettes”) have and we have heard from friends in the neighboring subdivision West Hampton that they have seen them in their yards too. Sadly the family has lost a few of the poults now, (likely due to predators like Coyotes or Hawks/Owls), but 7 still visit with Mom and Dad a few days each week.
At the time of writing this, 6 of the 7 poults were getting much bigger and one that we refer to endearingly as “the runt” was slowly getting larger too, but it is substantially smaller than the other brothers and sisters. We have seen some of the funniest behaviors in these young Eastern Wild Turkeys that you would probably not believe.
Travis and Tilly sharing a breakfast plate of mealworms. these guys are getting big! @birdsofwestcobb
We witnessed the whole family flying up and over our 4′ fence gate, and then starting to work their way across our yard to our neighbor’s yard. 6 of the poults and Mom and Dad made it 15-20′ into the yard and one of them lingered behind. Our first thought was “oh no, he is sick or something” but that wasn’t it at all. He tucked in quietly behind a pine tree trunk and stuck his head around the base to watch his family walk further and further away. One of the other poults noticed he was gone and started looking around. They started softly chirping and we watched the one behind the tree start running left and right, sticking his head around the tree on one side and then the other. We realized they were playing hide-and-seek! The other poult saw him sticking out from behind the tree eventually and ran/flew straight to him and chased him out from behind the tree, back to the group. It was hysterical!
The video above shows the Adult male (front, closest to camera) and the Adult Female (White - referred to as "smoke plumage"), shepherding their 7 young poults that all made it to adulthood. Sadly they started with 10, however we think a coyote, fox or a hawk contributed to the equation.
If you watch the video above until the end, you will see Mama turkey fly down by the young poults. The adults loved to get up high and have a better look out for predators. They didn't mind us much at all or threaten us in any way. We've seen videos where other turkeys will chase people especially when there is a nest or young nearby! So keep that in mind and always approach with caution. They are wild animals after all!
We added a couple of short videos to YouTube with our Eastern Wild Turkeys also! Check them out on our page: Birds of West Cobb “The wild turkey family returns.“
We kept seeing them for a few more days after writing this and the young poults were now the same size as the adults and it was getting harder to tell them apart! However, the 4th of July fireworks seemed to terrify them enough to flee the area and we didn’t see them again until Spring 2023, when a single male turkey came back for several weeks to our feeders. Similarly, we didn’t see him again after the 4th of July… however we are hopeful that they return in Spring 2024! Thanks for reading and we hope to see you again when the Wild Turkeys return to West Cobb in the future!