Subject: [Tweeters] Yet another Wild Turkey story...
Date: Feb 10 13:50:35 2011
From: johntubbs at comcast.net - johntubbs at comcast.net




Hi all,



This one was posted here a couple years ago, but for the new folks...



For a year or so, I?did monthly volunteer bird surveys inside the Cedar River Watershed property for the city's wildlife biologists.? One day, to my shock, I came upon a Wild Turkey out in the bowels of the watershed who proceeded to go into full strut, apparently hoping to win the affections of my vehicle.? This was rather humorous until I got out of the car to take a couple pictures, and the turkey apparently considered me a rival for the vehicle's affections and came at me full gallop.? My first reaction was to laugh, and my second was to hop quickly back into the car when it appeared that ?turkey-kaze meant business.? At which time the turkey decided to take its frustration out on the car, per the image in the attached link -
http://www.tubbsphoto.com/-/tubbsphoto/detail.asp?LID=&photoID=8407896&cat=38976 .



If you go to the link and click 'Previous' a couple times and then 'Next' a few more times, you'll see a range of pictures of the crazy bird, with whom I played snap-a-picture-then-jump-back-into-the-car for a few minutes.? Driving back to the headquarters, I thought no one would believe me that I had seen a turkey.? To my surprise when?I relayed ?the story to the biologists and office workers there, they were fully aware of his existence, laughed heartily ?and?informed me that I had met "Bob."? [No, I don't know how they came up with the name.]? The previous spring during strutting season, Bob had routinely terrorized people coming to work in the watershed, chasing people back into their cars and into the buildings.? At least one person was pecked sufficiently on the leg to draw blood.?



The spring after my encounter with Bob, the local newspaper had an article about?a crazy turkey who was making its belligerent presence known in Wilderness Rim, a North Bend neighborhood on the road to the watershed.? It had to be Bob.? Haven't heard anything about him since, though I have my suspicions that someone in Wilderness Rim might have made Bob into a holiday meal .



Never having been this close to a strutting tom turkey before, I was impressed at how imposing the bird could make itself appear.? And, something I had not anticipated, strutting comes with sound effects...a t least when done on a gravel road.? The bird stiffened its wings in a position that purposely caused their tips to drag along the road as it strutted, so its visual display was accompanied by a?surprisingly loud sound that seemed to have benefitted from being amplified by resonating the feather shafts.



John Tubbs

Snoqualmie, WA

johntubbs at comcast.net