Tag Archives: wild turkeys

THE GOOD SIGNS

Posted on January 2, 2022 by John | 1 comment

There were no wild turkeys here

when we were boys—no Great Egrets either

mimicking Blue Herons

statuesque in the pasture

waiting for the earth to move

a varmint cleaning house after rain.

Scattered atop the ridges,

we haven’t seen the cows and calves

in weeks, the young bulls longer

through December rains.

They don’t need us now,

they don’t need hay.

Lifeline of the canyon, the creek

arrived on Christmas Eve

running muddy, coloring the river

with streaks of chocolate

under the new bridge

it took years to finish.

And when the Tule fog

leaps and claws up canyon

like a lion to wrap us in a gray

cocoon that shuts the world away,

there’s nothing to do but wait

until the sun burns it off.

1 Comment

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2022

Tagged creek, grass, Great Egrets, green, rain, Tule fog, wild turkeys

BEFORE DAWN

Posted on March 13, 2021 by John | 1 comment

White sky,

purple frigates crash

into foothill silhouettes—

some slip behind,

compass heading east

trailing a damp cold front.

Headlights crawl

up the road, spotlight

searches sycamores

to a heavy bass beat

for something to kill,

something to eat.

1 Comment

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2021

Tagged human nature, nature, weather, wild turkeys

PAY ATTENTION

Posted on September 11, 2017 by John | 2 comments

Everywhere we look
nearby news, activity
we can’t escape
unless we fly
above it all.

It takes a herd of eyes,
a flock of senses
to survive the wild
and domestic
intrusions

of this world.
No time to lollygag
when everyone becomes
someone’s breakfast.
Pay attention.

2 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2017

Tagged photography, poetry, wild turkeys

Water Leaks

Posted on August 31, 2016 by John | 5 comments

It’s difficult to find a ranch without a water leak somewhere, usually around a trough. In the instance above, our 5,000-gallon tank has settled since we last repaired and changed the PVC fittings a number of years ago while the tank was empty. Anticipating settling when full, 40,000 pounds, we installed a compression fitting or dayton on our water line to allow the PVC pipe ends to slide closer together. Additionally, our conduit for the wire between the solar control panel and the float in the tank was in the same trench as our water fill and discharge line. The settling cracked the conduit and subsequently carried water from the leaky tank plumbing to the base of our solar panels creating another nasty bog.

This summer, our little rafter of turkeys have included the two leaks in their daily travels, drinking and finding bugs and grubs that wouldn’t otherwise be available. Because of the leaks, I’ve had to augment the solar pump with a generator and submersible pump to fill the tank once a day.

I’ve long rationalized that little leaks are not a waste of water, creating some green grass and making puddles for birds, rabbits and other small wildlife that often end up drowned and floating in our water troughs. Fishing the carcasses out can be an unpleasant chore.

Unable to responsibly procrastinate any longer, we set out early Tuesday morning knowing we had some muddy shovel work ahead. After several hours, we uncovered and loosened the dayton, fixed the conduit, repairing what was no little leak. If we’ve done our job well, the turkeys will have to drink elsewhere without the appetizers.

5 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal

Tagged photography, water, wild turkeys

TURKEYS GONE WILD

Posted on August 4, 2016 by John | 3 comments

It could be anytime past
that you brought back
and left to us

incubating hundreds
of turkey eggs,
illegally eliminating

as many predators
to keep a few alive
to become ‘street smart—’

at home in the wild.
You made the rules
you lived by

surviving yet beyond
your fences, ever
since you’ve been gone.

for Gary Davis

3 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2016, Ranch Journal

Tagged photography, poetry, wild turkeys

Toms Come Courting

Posted on March 29, 2016 by John | 1 comment

This year’s tall feed provides good cover for nesting hen turkeys, popping up out of the grass along the road as Joe and I approached them Easter Sunday. Whether the hens were leaving because we spooked them, or leading us away from their nests, was hard to tell as they chose the road ahead, unfettered by thick grass, to leave by.

It wasn’t long before we found two toms making their rounds of the area, fanning and strutting before a small crowd of cows at rest in the shade. American wild turkeys employ cooperative courtship during mating season to better attract the females, and according to a UC Berkeley study in 2005, select a close relative, a brother or half-brother, as a running mate to insure their genetics.

All this time I assumed the toms were competing for the favor of the hens. Furthermore, my Google research found instances where mating season has literally stopped traffic in Berkeley and where courting toms have actually attacked humans. Little did I suspect that the resurgence in the wild turkey’s population would be staged on city streets.

1 Comment

Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal

Tagged cooperative courtship, kin selection, mating season, wild turkeys

Dawn on the Pasture

Posted on September 27, 2015 by John | 3 comments

When I arrived yesterday to change my irrigation water, a coyote was nonchalantly studying these cows and calves from just outside the fence. The cow beneath the Valley Oak was lying close to her calf, hours old. The cows, of course, knew he was there well before I did. Taking an indirect approach, coyotes will gradually work their way among the cattle acting preoccupied and harmless until they become familiar to a bunch, all the while looking for any weakness among the calves—hence the Trickster moniker.

We have completed our first month of calving and pleased with 50% of our calves on the ground, a bright spot in the middle of this drought, though our total cow numbers have been reduced by half these past four years. This is the third calf for this particular bunch of cows bred by Vintage Angus bulls.

As the light turns softer and shadows longer, early mornings can be rewarding with lots of wildlife this time of year, especially where there is water. About twenty Canadian Geese are stripping the ripe seed of the water grass elsewhere in the pasture and our little bunch of wild turkeys, that are becoming used to me and the Kubota, are rummaging for bugs where I’ve completed my irrigation.

I take my camera, never knowing what I’ll see.

3 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal

Tagged Calves, camera, Canadian Geese, cows, coyotes, dawn, irrigation, Trickster, water, wild turkeys

Rafter of Turkeys, Gaggle of Geese

Posted on August 30, 2015 by John | 4 comments

A gaggle of geese (wild or domesticated)

A murder of crows
A parliament of owls
A descent of woodpeckers
A kettle of hawks
A host of sparrows
An unkindness of ravens
A raft of ducks
A party of jays
A skein of geese (in flight)
An exaltation of larks
A charm of finches
A bevy of quail
A covey of partridges
A dole of doves
A murmuration of starlings
A nye of pheasants (on the ground)
A bouquet of pheasants (when flushed)
A pitying of turtledoves
A spring of teal
A party of jays

more…

4 Comments

Posted in Photographs

Tagged Bird Group Names, Canadian Honkers, wild turkeys

— Happy Thanksgiving —

Posted on November 27, 2014 by John | 8 comments

8 Comments

Posted in Photographs

Tagged birds, Greasy Creek, photographs, Thanksgiving, wild turkeys, wildlife

Rites of Spring

Posted on April 30, 2014 by John | 3 comments

On our loop of Greasy Creek to check the cattle last Sunday, we interrupted some strutting wild turkey toms busy with their rites of spring in our Gathering Field.