Making friends is hard to do...especially if you are a turkey!

While working on a project at my desk, suddenly ADD took over (McT, you know what I'm talking about). To cure my ADD, I stood up, walked around for a bit, and then as I was walking back into my office, I looked out the window.

Little background before I continue...my office building backs onto a nature preserve. On the north side of the building there is a large, concrete, half-circle seating area where groups can host a campfire. This seating area is tiered so it looks like large, deep steps.

View from my office window/scene of the activity

On these same steps, during the spring, a couple co-workers and I rescued eight turkey babies (known as a poult). Mom was strutting around on the back side of the concrete steps; while the babies were running around on the steps not able to get by mom. They would try to get up by her by jumping, hitting the top rim of the step and then fall backwards. Granted it was humorous watching them do this, but the little guys were stressing out. So, my co-workers and I helped get the babies back to mom by draping a towel over them, scooping them up and flipping them over the step. Then they would scurry off in to the grasses by mom. I do feel a slight attachment to these turkeys because I rescued them.

Back to my sighting, and trust me I wish I had my camera today. As I looked outside, I saw a little rabbit munching on some grass (minding his own business), four hefty crows hanging out, and a woodchuck walking around on the concrete steps. All of sudden a family of turkeys came strutting through the area. It was the same turkey family that I rescued – mom, dad and the eight chicks, which were now teenagers (they grow up so quickly). The teenage turkeys were a curious group. My guess is that they wanted to make friends...I can hear them saying, "wanna be my friend?" I watched the turkeys wander over to check out the rabbit, and the rabbit had no interest in the turkeys. So he said, "Forget it, I'm outta here," and ducked under a bush. The turkeys then saw the woodchuck, and tried see if he would be their friend. I'm not really sure the woodchuck acknowledged the turkeys because he kept plodding along until he disappeared into the tall grasses. Now that these turkeys were shot down by a rabbit and a woodchuck, I think they felt the four large-and-in-charge crows would be a good choice. (I could have told them that they were not very nice birds.) Not being able to give them a clue, I watched the turkeys approach the crows. The four crows advanced towards the turkeys, making a few of the turkeys run closer to mom and dad. I figured the crows said some mean words to upset the turkeys. Then one by one, the crows left. One crow stood there and flapped his wings, one crow turned his head and walked the other way, one crow squawked and flew away, and the last crow just plain flew away. For a moment, I was expecting a battle of the birds: turkeys vs. crows.

The poor turkey kids did not make any friends. I felt bad for them, but I did continue to watch the family of turkeys poke around in the grass for food until they disappeared into the prairie grasses and trees.

Definitely an interesting observation of wildlife, and it did consume some time so my ADD could settle down. Granted my ADD led me to writing this story rather than tackling my project. Guess I better get back to that. Hope you are all well, and I will write soon!