northeast-flora-and-fauna

I recently looked up what a group of Wild Turkeys is called. Besides the extremely-generic-but-acceptable term "flock", a set of Wild Turkeys can be called a " rafter ". There were at least 6 turkeys in this particular rafter foraging in a small grassy area adjacent to some woods. There are a bunch of collective terms for animals ; it sounds like many of these were intended to be clever witticisms .  November 3, 2022 at Duke Farms Photo 251083899, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) November 3, 2022 at Duke Farms Photo 251083909, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's a Wild Turkey I met late last autumn. I could argue that I met several of them, but most of them flew off so far and fast that I'm not sure I'd consider it an encounter. I don't know how well a supermarket butterball turkey flies, but Wild Turkeys fly pretty well, at least for short distances. Our Wild Turkeys are sort of the ancestors of the Domestic Turkeys of Thanksgiving Day fame; Domestic Turkeys are the descendants of a Wild Turkey subspecies found in Mexico.  I originally heard turkey clucking going on off the trail in some fairly dense vegetation but couldn't get a clear look at them. As frequently happens my attempts to get a picture ultimately scared the turkeys into flight, though at least one of them initially landed in a nearby tree. I'm somewhat fortunate to have gotten a picture since she didn't stay there very long, ultimately rejoining her flock in an undisclosed location. All things considered the picture turned out better than I...

Here's a Blue Jay foraging along a roadway last autumn. It's a bird I've talked about before , though I'm sure entire books have been written about these colorful, loud, and clever birds.  While the size differences of the birdfeeder birds may not seem important to us, they frequently make a big difference to the birds themselves. Cardinals are around twice the size of many of our sparrows, and the Blue Jay is nearly twice the size of a cardinal. This is why Blue Jays are among the most dominant/prominent birds at a birdfeeder, at least among the frequent visitors. (Occasional visits by someone like a Pileated Woodpecker or crow - let alone a Wild Turkey - would upset the hierarchy.) At least until the Gray Catbirds return, the Blue Jays probably reign supreme around here in the loud squawking department. Even when you can't see these attractive birds, you can still hear them. October 11, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 168359172, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (...

Here are a couple Wild Turkeys I (fleetingly) met - they fled the scene. My recollection is that there were more turkeys than that, but I only had a chance to get a picture of these 2 before they disappeared into the vegetation. (This is not the worst turkey picture I've taken over the years.) Though the Wild Turkey's domesticated descendants are plentiful (probably our second most prevalent farm bird), our Wild Turkeys were almost hunted to extinction. Reintroducing them was ultimately successful though, as they're spotted fairly frequently. Though we see them walking about most of the time, they're versatile; they fly pretty well for short distances, and apparently can also swim. (I've never photographed the former, and never seen the latter.)