Wildlife Happenings.

When we bought our land the previous owner told us that his son had killed the largest wild turkey in our region here. I don't know how many turkey hunters go and register the weight of their bird - I don't know if that is something reported or what - but it was an interesting bit of information. We had seen 40+ turkeys on our property on our initial visits.

Upon moving into our house we had a flock of 26 and a smaller flock of 18. Here are some that came through the morning of Andrew's birthday (Nov 13); I told him they came to sing "Happy Birthday". ;)

Back in mid-winter there were several nights I would hear the coyotes in the backwoods that border our property. It seemed they would start their howling around eleven on those nights. One night they woke me and I was for sure they were right in our back yard. 

One of days following a howling night, we noticed our flock of 26 was missing two. :( Wade found one of them down by our pond when he was walking and happened to scare it. The next day he found it dead by the pond. We think it had been hurt by a coyote.

Not long after all this happened our turkey population disappeared. We had one or two come along finally. Then we realized we had a loner, The Lone Ranger, we called him and a set of two that came around together. Now we have a flock of three (woohoo! *snicker*) and then the two and one.

I saw ALL that to tell you this. Our two (I once called them the Dynamic Duo and maybe that name should stick) was seen this Sunday with ELEVEN baby turkeys. Yay! Wade saw them when we got home from church and told me. I was squealing with excitement as I ran to get the binoculars (which I am convinced we need at least another pair for all of our look-out spots!).

We went to Tractor Supply Sunday afternoon to buy cracked corn. We had read the baby turkeys, called poults, eat insects for the first few weeks for the protein but then eat grains and whatever. We have learned turkeys aren't too particular in their diet. We didn't know what stage the poults are in but we went ahead and put some cracked corn out for them as well as our usual whole corn for the adult turkeys and deer (which we have found we are also feeding various birds, a opossum and one big raccoon).

Unfortunately, we didn't get to see them again until yesterday. Who knows how many times they did or did not come through our land and I missed it. Here's the best photo I could get. They were in the back of our "yard" and even with my zoom lens I couldn't get real close up. 

About an hour later, I saw this fella come through. He's our four-point buck. Click on the picture and you can see the velvet on his antlers. 

Some interesting facts about antlers - they grow faster than any other mammal bone, they fall off and grow back for most each year which takes a lot of nutrients for the male deer and is really detrimental to his health, and the velvet is like a skin that supplies blood to the antlers which in turn give them (i.e., the antlers) nutrients and oxygen as they grow. 

Confession: I have wanted an antler or two for decoration in my house since we moved here. I think I can get one from my brother-in-law, the hunter, but I haven't yet. I even looked online to see about buying them and was then bombarded with "deer spray" ads when I went to other websites. LOL

One thing for certain is that I'm learning a lot about animals I've grown up seeing and knew were indigenous to this area my whole life. That's a good thing though! I love to learn.

Our evening was spent burning a brush pile, putting out corn for the animals and just being together as a family. (Elizabeth is away at camp and will be home tonight.) Gabby, our stray cat who joined us about three months ago, came along on the walk. Dory, her three month old kitten, didn't want to come too far after her run-in with the electric fence around my garden the other night. ;)

I carried Gabby some of the way as she was so busy investigating the new territory that she would get behind and then start meowing because she was looking for us. :) Andrew and I decided to take her back to the house instead of doubling back to check on the fire like we had planned. When we started that way Andrew was walking a few paces ahead of me. Gabby would run past him then stop and wait for me to catch up with her then she'd run head of Andrew again and then wait again for me. It was so cute and funny.

Gabby and Dory have learned their routine of being outside during the day and being put up at night. When we're heading in for the evening (usually around 8:30-9 with the long daylight hours), I'll tell the cats, "Come on, girls!" and they'll follow me around to the end of the house to go in the garage door to the basement.

Here's a picture of them before we went on our walk. I posted it on Instagram and called them "house ornaments". That's about all they contribute to our family so far. Naaaah, I enjoy my furry friends.

Here are some interesting mushrooms we saw on our walk last night. I took these pictures with my phone and it was starting to get a little dark so two of them aren't very clear.

Happy Friday!