“Unusual Birds” & Trees in your area ?

We also have turkeys, whose mating rituals often resemble a thoughtfully organized reel dance, with turkeys forming lines and prancing past each other. But then, one day, there was the turkey face-fight.

Two turkeys used my yard for a 1-1/2-hour no-holds-barred brawl, which mainly consisted of pecking savagely at each others' faces until one turkey was able to get the other's head in its mouth. One engaged like this, they would push each other around--smashing into trees and even the house when it got their way. The whole affair was so brutal that I had to look away occasionally.

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When finished, the victor raised his plumage and chased the looser into woods.

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For several years, in the last ~ 10, a Turkey hen has laid eggs in a nest in the woods, just in front of my front windows !

I now have a very fat hen, just lounging around in the back yard for 1-2 hours. She isn't feeding; just a little preening, and soaking up the sunshine.

I think she may be ready to lay in the woods, behind the house ? ? ?

We'll see if I can locate the nest w/o disturbing it; or when I see baby chicks running around in the backyard feeding !
 
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GregManning said:
For several years, in the last ~ 10, a Turkey hen has laid eggs in a nest in the woods, just in front of my front windows !

I now have a very fat hen, just lounging around in the back yard for 1-2 hours. She isn't feeding; just a little preening, and soaking up the sunshine.

I think she may be ready to lay in the woods, behind the house ? ? ?

We'll see if I can locate the nest w/o disturbing it; or when I see baby chicks running around in the backyard feeding !
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My turkey hen is still hanging around in the back yard. :)

Turkeys must be ferocious when protecting their ground nests !
They roost very high up in the trees, but nest on the ground.
I have LOTS of racoons, hawks & crows. Some fox, coyotes, possums, etc, etc.
 
Turkeys are bad ass TOUGH birds, that are very hard to manually kill. Back when I was a herpitology nut I got a box of leftover birds from a farm store to use as feeders. It’s standard practice (or should be) to only feed reptiles prekilled prey, and better yet to train them to take frozen thawed prey. I will spare y’all the details other than I gave up killing the turkey and just fed it to the python severely wounded and stunned.
JCB said:
We also have turkeys, whose mating rituals often resemble a thoughtfully organized reel dance, with turkeys forming lines and prancing past each other. But then, one day, there was the turkey face-fight.

Two turkeys used my yard for a 1-1/2-hour no-holds-barred brawl, which mainly consisted of pecking savagely at each others' faces until one turkey was able to get the other's head in its mouth. One engaged like this, they would push each other around--smashing into trees and even the house when it got their way. The whole affair was so brutal that I had to look away occasionally.

View attachment 82025 View attachment 82026

When finished, the victor raised his plumage and chased the looser into woods.

View attachment 82027
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evo said:
Turkeys are bad ass TOUGH birds, that are very hard to manually kill. Back when I was a herpitology nut I got a box of leftover birds from a farm store to use as feeders. It’s standard practice (or should be) to only feed reptiles prekilled prey, and better yet to train them to take frozen thawed prey. I will spare y’all the details other than I gave up killing the turkey and just fed it to the python severely wounded and stunned.
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@evo How big were those critters ! ?
 
I have some "baby" crows that just came out of their nest in the backyard wood- line.
They are "huge" - nearly as large as the adults !
They follow the adults around the yard, and still beg for food w/ open mouths ? ? ?
 
oldoakman said:
It is one of our local Barred Owl family. They serenade us every evening. The other evening several were "talking" and "laughing".
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My barred owls (LOTS of them) typically hoot / call to each other many miles apart, in all directions VERY early in the mornings.
It's like they are letting each other know were their hunting territory is ? ? ?
 
GregManning said:
@evo How big were those critters ! ?
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Biggest python I kept was a solid 9-10’, semi arboreal carpet python. Just for scale it could easily take a slender cat for prey. Damn turkey wasn’t even pullet sized though.
The term bunny bowling isn’t uncommon with big snake breeders.
 
Weeping full- size doug-fir, I think.

I've worked at this residence for about 7 years.

I've seen it grow a lot and become more pronounced.
 

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Dan Cobb said:
Unusual bird event just now. I was sitting on the front porch with the parrot on his perch/stand thingy an arm's length from me. I see a red tailed hawk flying low in my direction from across the street. The hawk disappears from view behind some azaleas, then reappears heading right for me and the parrot, 30 ft away and closing fast. As I hop up, the parrot bails off his perch into the shrubs (his wings are clipped, so he doesn't fly.) Hawk veers off just a few feet from us, without the African Grey meal he was hoping for. Quite a rush for me, more so for the parrot I'm sure. When I first glimpsed the hawk, I was not thinking about him trying to snatch the parrot. It's something I try to be aware of when I have the parrot outdoors, but the light bulb did not come on today as it happened so fast. Lesson learned.
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Preyscape. Term from wildlife bio.
 
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