Big Yard Birds

This is the time of year when the size of the birds visiting my feeder suddenly increases.  For the past couple of weeks, this pair of Canada Geese has been making regular morning visits to my yard.  A lot of loud honking advertises their intent to make a splash down on the pond in front of the house.

They spend a few minutes eating some of the submerged greenery around the edge of the pond. 

I believe this pair is nesting near a neighbor’s pond.  Each morning and evening the geese fly a circuit around the area, noisily announcing the fact that this is their chosen territory and other geese should stay away.

After a few minutes in the water, the geese normally have a little foot race up to the feeder to gobble down some cracked corn.  However, on this particular morning, they have come to a halt at the top of the pond embankment.  For some reason, they are not running for the food.

Turkeys have beaten the geese to the feast.  A flock of turkeys generally has the feeding area all to itself.  The geese may be large, but they won’t try to move in on the turkeys.

Wild Turkeys typically spend the winter in the woods.  Once breeding season arrives, the turkeys suddenly show up back in the yard.  Hens, Jakes and Toms will travel in mixed flocks of 12 to 18 birds.  Sometimes two or three of these flocks will show up in the yard at the same time. It may be that food in the woods is becoming harder to secure or it could be that the turkeys are wanting to bulk up for their breeding efforts.  Whatever the reason, spring seems to signal the arrival of the big yard birds.  It also means I have to watch where I step when I go out to fill the feeders.

Wild Turkey Fight

It’s the middle of February and the male Wild Turkeys at Blue Jay Barrens are already displaying enhanced coloration as they prepare for the annual breeding season.  The male Wild Turkeys visited the feeder on Sunday afternoon.  Even though the day was sunny, the temperature was only 14^oF.  This was not what I would consider spring-like weather, but one of the turkeys must have had spring in its heart as it attempted to do a little displaying on the feeding grounds.

Just like the stereotypic bar fight on TV, the showing off by one male instilled a spark of rivalry in another.  It began with some posturing and pushing on the part of the two Tom turkeys.

Then it erupted into full blown battle for dominance in the local flock.  In keeping with the pattern of a TV bar fight, a bystander seems oblivious to the brewing conflict.

Several techniques were used in the early stages of the fight.  Strong wing claps and hatchet kicks with the spurs topped the list.  Within minutes though, the pair locked bills and began pushing with their breasts.  This push type combat lasted for over 30 minutes.

One bird seems to swallow the top bill of the other, while its opponent appears to have engulfed the lower bill and part of the throat of the first.  It’s sometimes difficult to distinguish two different heads in the strange embrace.

There must be tremendous stress on the neck.  At times, one combatant’s head can be pushed down to meet its back.

There was an occasional break in the action lasting no more than a few seconds.  The two fighters always quickly regained their bill-to-bill grip and continued the struggle.  Over the course of the battle, the pair completely circled the house.

As quickly as it began, the action ended.

The bird in the foreground was the apparent victor.

The struggle seems to have sapped the strength of both combatants.

The defeated bird positioned itself in front of the victor.

Then it presented itself as subservient to the dominant flock member.

Surrender accepted, the pair headed back to the feeder.  I prepared a video of a portion of the fight that can be seen on YouTube by clicking on this LINK.  

Turkey Nest

It’s turkey mating season and male Wild Turkeys have been gobbling and displaying for several weeks.  Preferred display sites are those areas of low growing ground cover.  At Blue Jay Barrens, a choice location is the level lawn behind the house.

The whole purpose of the display is to impress a hen enough that she allows the male to approach and mate.  A nesting hen typically visits with a male in the early morning and then sneaks off to lay one egg in her nest.

I was walking along the field trail yesterday morning when I spotted a small cedar showing itself in the Indian Grass.  I always carry a pair of hand pruners on my belt, so I headed out into the field to cut the unwanted cedar.

As I approached, I noticed a dark shape at the base of the cedar.  I quickly backed away a few steps and stopped.

Hidden in the grass was a nesting turkey.  Old books will tell you that turkeys nest in the woods, usually beside a fallen tree trunk.  Blue Jay Barrens has dozens of fallen trees, but none with an accompanying turkey nest.  The most common place to find a turkey nest seems to be in a tall grass field, usually beside a small shrub.

I left the turkey undisturbed and then returned to the nest site later in the day.  As I had hoped, the hen had laid her daily egg and was away from the nest.

The light tan coloration of the eggs allows them to blend well with the dried grass stalks.

The base of the nest is constructed of strands of dried Indian Grass.  There is enough of a base to keep the eggs slightly elevated above the ground.  I hope this was enough to keep them high and dry during last night’s two inch rainfall.

Fifteen eggs is a pretty large clutch size.  This hen should begin incubating soon, unless there’s more than one hen involved.  In some cases, multiple hens will lay eggs in a shared nest site.  I’m not sure how the incubation duties are decided in a situation like that.  At any rate, there should be a batch of young turkeys joining the flock in about four weeks.  I’ll stay away until then and hope the incubation goes well.

Mayapple Feast

I returned to a place I had just visited the previous day to find that something had eaten a substantial meal of Mayapple plants.  I know that all of the plants were untouched the night before, so this was the result of a single night’s activity.

Other than loss of the fruit, I rarely see any damage done to Mayapples.  I was curious as to the identity of the culprit.  Three notorious plant eaters came instantly to mind:  Cottontails, Groundhogs, Whitetail Deer.  The feast consisted of several plants.  The heights of the remaining stalks suggest that in some cases, very little of the plant was actually consumed.  This doesn’t seem consistent with the feeding behavior of the Cottontail.  Cottontails bite a stalked plant off at the base and then sit upright while eating their way up the stalk.  They rarely eat from the top down to the ground.  I imagine their feeding method allows them to watch for predators while feeding. 

Groundhogs have a feeding pattern that’s similar to that of Cottontails.  If they were not going to consume the leaf, they would eat the stalk right up to the base of the leaf and leave little or no stub.  With an almost machine like proficiency, a Groundhog would have left each leaf with the same amount of stem attached.

The partially cut, partially torn stub makes me lean towards deer.  Deer are the most likely animal to leave varying lengths of stem both on the leaves and standing from the ground.  I’ve also watched deer leave this same type of bite signature on many different types of plants.

I still don’t know why an animal with constant access to Mayapples would suddenly make this one time assault on the plants.  Maybe the plant corrected some dietary deficiency present in the animal.  The single meal may have brought the deer back into normal balance.  I’ll probably never know for sure.  Many discoveries just leave me with a lot of unanswered questions.

Just up the hill from the Mayapples and in plain sight of my location, a group of Wild Turkeys engaged in courtship activities.  I saw them look in my direction, but they never stopped what they were doing or attempted to move away.  This bunch includes four Toms who are regular visitors to my yard.  They move out of the yard when I’m around, but come right back when I leave.  Now they seem to be getting used to my presence where ever we happen to meet.  I guess they don’t realize that there are a few more days left of Turkey season and they should be a little more wary of anything wandering around on two legs.

Wild Turkeys - Toms and Bearded Hens

My yard has been turned into a Wild Turkey display area.  The yard is large enough for the toms to spread out, but they all stay in a bunch and display together.

I’ve been watching to see if the toms interact any differently with the bearded hens.  So far, it seems that the beards don’t make any difference.

This hen has a decided kink to her beard which makes her easy to identify. 

It’s usually easier to see the beard in profile. 

I’ve been trying to get the two bearded hens together in the same shot.  I was happy to get this shot, but as soon as it was taken, I noticed a third bearded hen farther out in the yard.

The toms continually move up on the hens and the hens are constantly moving away.  That makes it somewhat difficult to get a shot of them standing still.

Out of 23 hens in the yard, three had beards.  That seems a rather high percentage.  It took quite a while for the three with beards to group together and stand with their beards exposed.

The two hens on the right and the one in the lower left all have beards.  That confirms three with beards, but I’m not sure that’s all there are.  Another hen came to the yard later in the day in the company of five others and she carried a small wispy beard unlike any displayed here.  I wonder if my flock is trending toward all beards.

Turkeys wander in and out of the yard all day.  Group size varies, so I’m not sure of the total number that I’m dealing with.  The phenomenon of bearded hens must be of interest to a lot of people.  I get several blog visitors each week who arrive because of a search for bearded hens.  I hope they enjoy these latest shots.

A Pair of Bearded Hens

There has been a bearded hen in the Blue Jay Barrens Wild Turkey flock for several years.  I’ve seen her at the feeders many times and I’ve even watched her escort a group of young poults through the yard.  Bearded hens are uncommon, but they’re regularly observed across the turkey’s range.

I’ve lately been noticing a bearded hen that displays a smaller beard than what I’ve been used to seeing.  I wondered if something had happened that caused the hen to lose part of her beard.  I stopped speculating along those lines when I looked out and saw two bearded hens side-by-side.  It’s possible that the newcomer with the sparse beard is an offspring of the older bearded hen.

Typical hens are smooth breasted and display no signs of the hairlike feathers that compose the beard of a male turkey.

Hens sporting a beard are easy to spot.  They may appear odd to us, but the bearded hens function as perfectly normal female turkeys.  The beard poses no problems for the hen, except during the turkey season when the abnormality could get the bird shot.

When I see individuals displaying abnormalities in wild populations, I’m reminded of the genetic diversity carried within a species.  This is what allows a species to survive climatic and habitat changes.  Wild Turkeys have already displayed a measure of their adaptability by surviving the destruction of the mature woodland in which they had lived for thousands of years and thriving in the fragmented landscape we have today.  If beards ever become the key to survival, these birds will be ready.

The Third Inch - A Snow Day

I’m talking about receiving the third inch of snowfall for this winter season.  A fast moving system came through yesterday morning and delivered the half inch of snow needed to bring us up to the three inch mark.  Temperatures stayed around 32 degrees, so the snow was wet and stuck to whatever it touched.  There was just enough to change the appearance of the landscape and put a highlight on certain features, like the mowed trails that leave the yard area.  It was also enough snow to cancel any plans I had for mowing or clearing activities.

It was bad enough that the snow stopped me from working, but then it went on to highlight some of the things I still have to accomplish.  A cap of snow identified each Teasel seed head in the field.  Teasel is one of those invasive plants that I need to get under control.  Fortunately, Teasel numbers are negligible in most areas.  This just happens to be the most prominent patch.

Indian Grass is still standing tall and straight.  It takes either a heavy snow or hurricane force winds to bring this grass to the ground.  The Indian Grass stands have been full of sparrows all winter.  The sparrows spend a lot of time on the ground searching for the grass seed that fell to earth a few months ago.

Big Bluestem doesn’t have the strength or durability displayed by the Indian Grass.  In this mixed stand, much of the Big Bluestem has fallen over.  A few inches of wet snow will take it all down.  I see a lot less sparrow activity in the Big Bluestem areas.

Wet snow really enhances your ability to see individual tree branches in the woods.  The dark of the wet wood makes a beautiful contrast to the bright white snow.  The effect changes a tangle into a collection of individual parts.  It reminds me of my early days with coloring books.  I would trace the lines with my black crayon before filling in the colors.  I liked the contrast and the stained glass window effect.

Temperature of the creek water doesn’t change very rapidly.  However, my perception of the water’s temperature does go through some erratic fluctuations.  I walked past this spot the day before the snow and because of the bright sunlight, my impression was of a cool water stream.  When I see the gray sky and watch the water flowing between snowy banks, I get the sense of a frigid creek.  Fortunately for the creek creatures, their environment doesn’t change as often as my mood.

The snow has only been on the ground for a couple of hours, but the turkeys have already scratched it up in their search for food. I wonder if I could instill in them a golfer’s etiquette and get them to replace their divots.

Their search must have been unsatisfying, because they formed a single file line and hurried up to the yard to scrounge beneath the feeders.  I followed their trail back to the house, a distance of about 1,000 feet and noticed that none strayed from the column during the journey.  By the time I made it to the yard, they had eaten and moved on.

The day never got any brighter, but the snow ended by late morning and had melted away before the end of the day.  Hopefully we can now cycle back into some sunny weather.