Gobble-squabble

Big commotion out behind my target backstop the other day. I looked out the front door in time to see the thrashing and flailing of a turkey wing in the high weeds. At first I thought that maybe a coyote had gotten among the hen and her poults and grabbed a rifle to go out and see. (I know: it's "nature's way" and there's no point in inserting oneself. But I'm a part of nature, too— and I'm on the turkey's side.)

But before I got off the porch I saw that it was just a squabble between two hens. I put the rifle away and sneaked down with a camera to see if I could get a few frames. They sensed me and melted away into the very high weeds (five to six feet high in places). I snugged myself into a spot against a cottonwood and waited.

Occasionally a poult would raise up his ugly little periscopy head, take a peek around, and then down-scope into the weeds. The other hen seemed to have disappeared, but mom was in and out of the weeds a number of times. She seemed aware of my presence, but never got alarmed about it. I got a number of fairly decent pictures, but mainly I was just happy to see that all was well. Even managed to sneak back up to the house without disturbing her.

And yesterday morning, right at dawn, the whole brood was out in front of the porch prancing around and looking for a nice breakfast of tasty bugs. I was very pleased to see that all six poults are still with her.