Variety

From the trail camera there are:  whitetail deer, screech owl, fox squirrel, a timber doodle, raccoon and a long beard gobbler.

Nice variety....... 

 

Talking Turkey

Wisconsin's spring turkey season came to a close this last Tuesday with Period F closing May 27.  Driving past a neighbor's property that day I spied a young man and (presumably) his girlfriend hefting a nice gobbler in the back of a pickup at the end of the day.

Congratulations.

I got my bird in the shortest hunt of my life.  Yowza!  And I'm looking forward to making some good eats this year.  I'll share; I promise.

Anyway, you can't get to many gobbler pics and these are fresh off the trail cameras.

Turkey poults are on deck....

 

X-Rated

If you have a thin skin about sexual matters go no further.

STOP!

Exit the blog.

Now.

On the other hand if you appreciate biology, reproduction and all things about wildlife you may get a charge out of this.

For the first time ever I have trail camera images of wild turkeys doing it.  Yup.  The wild turkey mambo.  I left the date and time stamps on the photos in this montage so you can appreciate the amount of time spent from beginning to end.

I cannot measure the duration of foreplay as much of that likely occurred beforehand out of view; although knowing what I know about the courtship rituals of this species it was likely quite extended and sustained.  

Enjoy.....

 

Gobblers!

From the trail camera trap line there are gobblers; lots of them.

Strutting their stuff for the ladies;

Full of themselves

With loving on their mind.

Truthfully, this spring ritual is absolutely spectacular......

Gobblers!

More gobblers strutting their stuff for the ladies.

Coming and going.

 

Stay-tuned.

The best is yet to come! 

Trail Camera Collage

Some recent images from the trail camera trap line include:

A curious doe

A screech owl

A timber doodle (North American Woodcock)

A couple of gobblers 

And Wiley Coyote 

Trail Camera Trapline

From the trail camera there is a strutting gobbler, a pheasant, sandhill crane and a cuddly fox squirrel...

Smile For the Trail Camera

Recent trail camera photos include a strutting gobbler, strolling sandhill crane, red fox on the run, robins picking around for breakfast, the family dog, a ditch tiger on the prowl, and a cuddly fox squirrel.

Talkn' Turkey

It's that time of year.

As the daylight hours continue to lengthen a hormonal response in the male of this species has commenced.  These long-beards have got loving on their mind.

From the video cam here's thirty seconds silent movie vignettes.

The turkey trot commences.....

Birds of a Feather.....

.....Flock together.

Wild turkeys tend to travel in flocks as there is safety in numbers.  If you have a dozen or more pairs of keen eyes predators can frequently be spotted before they pose a threat.

Turkey flocks take many forms.  A brood flock includes hens and a mixed sex collection of that year's recruitment of the newly-hatched.  Brood flocks are sometimes led by a matriarchal Boss Hen.

Jakes - yearling males - also travel in flocks.  They are like gangs of teenage boys and are prone to making trouble and bad decisions.  They are the juvenile delinquents of the species.

This is a flock of long beards; mature males referred-to as gobblers.  Outside of the breeding season these flocks are typical and can be led by a dominant male bird.  (The pecking order applies to birds of both sexes).  With the arrival of spring and with loving on their minds any previous conviviality goes out the window and these males will resort sparring amongst themselves as they compete to collect their harems of hens with which to breed.

Jakes who are stupid enough to attempt to breed with a mature gobbler's lady friend can expect a sound thrashing.

These photos were taken by camera #2 on the north bank of Silver Creek and camera #1 west of the house and within a stone's throw of the Taj 2.0.  The interval was sixteen minutes apart.

 

A Half Dozen

A selection of critters from the trail camera trap line.

Coyote

Long beard gobblers

Curious doe

Raccoon

Velvet buck

And a possum

Variety

From the trail camera trap line I bring you a stringer of various critters who have had their images curated over the past month.

Key takeaways?  

Snow on the ground until just recently.

Plenty of variety.

Coyote

Check out the spurs on this gobbler

Striped skunk

Robin

Cranes

Possum

Deer

Crow

Chickadee

And a teeny, tiny Boreal or Saw Whet owl