The Old Folks Home

[NotAFarm]

Turkeys in a harvested soybean field on my way home from work on Halloween. It is the largest flock I've seen in a while. We've had two "milder" winters in a row and maybe that has something to do with the numbers...and the fact they have no food shortages with all the crops!

 

[microchick]

I'm always amazed by how freaking BIG they are. I'm too used to seeing them buck nekked roasted to a golden brown and laying on a platter!

We have a big flock that roams the area of 30 birds or more. I love seeing them in the wild and have proclaimed them our official,national farm bird meaning nobody is allowed to harm a turkey on our property or I will unleash a degree of mad on them that the world has yet to experience.

It's 35 here now. Bright and sunny, but next week is supposed to be pretty cold and windy. I always like to have a day or two in the 50s during dear season so I can just go out and set in the woods and enjoy the Indian Summer but I don't see it happening this year. We haven't seen any show yet but there is a chance next Thursday. We usually have at least one show of snow before Thanksgiving, what we call a cat track snow, so maybe that will be it.

I'm kind of looking forward to seeing how the spring and summer hatched birds react to it when it happens.

 

[getaclue]

Those look delicious!

 

[ronott1]

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Turkeys in a harvested soybean field on my way home from work on Halloween. It is the largest flock I've seen in a while. We've had two "milder" winters in a row and maybe that has something to do with the numbers...and the fact they have no food shortages with all the crops!

Yes to the question of huge turkey flocks. Where I live, we have the largest concentration of wild Turkeys in the country. I saw one flock in an alfalfa field that was at least 50 with lots of presenting Toms.

Remember, we had one that wanted to go to UC Davis!

 

[ronott1]

Yeah, big flocks of migratory grackles. What's funny is that we have very few around the farm. I think a pair nested in our overhang porch this past spring that that is the first I've seen since we first bought property in Missouri almost 10 years ago.

In fall though they congregate in the trees and make an unholy racket to the point that I'll go out and shoot a rifle at one of our berms just to get them to move along...they do, to a tree across the road and then the whole process starts all over again.

I'm seeing the first Juncos arrive at the feeder. Last winter we had a pair of blue birds winter over in one of our bird houses. I saw them last week on the deck looking the nest box, which I had moved to the back yard and hung on a multi nest box hanger my husband made for me. About a half hour later I saw them out back, busily checking over the 5 boxes there. So happy to see them back. There is just something about blue birds that make me smile. Them and Indigo Buntings.

We do not have Grackles here. They do not go to far from the mid west. We do have black birds and crows though. I like the crows that live across the street. They keep the Hawks away!

 

[CapricornFarm]

I am pretty far from the midwest, but there are sure lots of grackles here. We have many types of birds here. Love to see them around, except the big flocks freak me out.

 

[ronott1]

I am pretty far from the midwest, but there are sure lots of grackles here. We have many types of birds here. Love to see them around, except the big flocks freak me out.

They range from the east coast to the mid west. They do not seem to go over the Rockies.

 

[microchick]

I am pretty far from the midwest, but there are sure lots of grackles here. We have many types of birds here. Love to see them around, except the big flocks freak me out.

Yeah, it's like being caught in the middle of an Alfred Hitchcock movie.

I always think of this scene when the grackles start congregating in the trees.

If crows keep hawks away I wish we would get more crows cause the hawks are terrible around us. Especially during spring water fowl migration. I keep my run covered but it isn't unusual to go out and find a hawk circling the coop trying to find a weak spot in my armor. One morning I went out and had one sitting in a tree about 50 feet from a pen watching the birds. DH usually goes out with one of his larger RC planes and chases them out of our airspace but they are pretty brazen when they are hungry.

 

[ronott1]

Yeah, it's like being caught in the middle of an Alfred Hitchcock movie.

I always think of this scene when the grackles start congregating in the trees.

If crows keep hawks away I wish we would get more crows cause the hawks are terrible around us. Especially during spring water fowl migration. I keep my run covered but it isn't unusual to go out and find a hawk circling the coop trying to find a weak spot in my armor. One morning I went out and had one sitting in a tree about 50 feet from a pen watching the birds. DH usually goes out with one of his larger RC planes and chases them out of our airspace but they are pretty brazen when they are hungry.

I smile and say thanks to those crows. Sometimes they follow me when I go on my walk. Crows live a long time and are quite smart for a bird species. I think they know I keep chickens and approve.

There are a lot of Swainson's hawks in Woodland but I do not see them in my neighborhood

 

[ronott1]