Turkeys Gone Wild

Making a break for the seclusion of the back of the house.

After three years of hearing stories about the pack of aggressive wild turkeys that roam the area up and down the Irondequoit Creek in Perinton, New York, I finally caught view of them with my own eyes. While having coffee with my mother a few weeks ago I briefly glimpsed a male's fanning plumage in the next door neighbor's yard. Initially what I was seeing did not quite register, but once the realization that a there was a "turkey sighting," a group of four came wandering toward the back door. As they paused momentarily to scratching at the grass, I ran for my car to get a camera in hopes of snapping a picture.

Briefly in view, this good ol' boy scampers for higher ground.

By the time I returned they had scampered behind my parent's house. The turkeys were much quicker than one would think and I had to follow them down the side of the yard to take the pictures I eventually was able to take. Come to find out that in recent years, the wild turkeys had not been as visible as during the summers that my father would regale me with tales of turkeys cornering mail carriers or stopping traffic as to slowly saunter across the street.

"See you later, suckers!"

As she occassioanlly has previously, my mother once again shared how she would often see the wild turkeys sitting in the high tree bracnhes "looking like little old men." That's one shot I have yet to ahve had the opportunity to take, and it remains atop my personal bucket list of potential photos. At least now, having been teased by seeing the wild turkeys in person, the reality of catching one in the trees seems a slight bit more achievable.