Remember When: January 28, 2009

The sighting of wild turkeys along various locations of North Street in Anderson, from north of the North Street Bridge to within the oak woodlands along Tormey Drain and the hills above the fairgrounds, has really impressed me with their ability to adapt to our urban lifestyle.

My first encounter with their behavior was at our cabin in the mountains. They were supposed to be a very elusive bird. They seemed to have a habit of flying downhill to roost in the big oak trees as I discovered one evening. I could not imagine what all the noise was with the flapping of the wings and arranging themselves in the branches.

I soon found out when I went to investigate the noise, but my pretenses did not seem to bother them. In the morning you could hear them as they flew down from their roosting place and started feeding.

I have had other encounters with them. Their babies will hide, but soon will go on feeding and be on their way. One encounter was with an old mother hen and her brood as they were making their way along a cleared power line.

She spotted me even as I stood very still. Quietly she warned her little ones, but she just keep an eye on me and continued on her way, eyeing me and sounding her warnings. What surprised me was some young deer were coming up another trail and they heard her warning to her young ones. They entered the brush and detoured around the area where I was and did not return to the trail until the turkey was by and had discontinued her warning to her young ones.

It has intrigued me over the years as I have watched the wild creatures interact, how the different wild birds and animals warn each other of approaching danger of someone or something they notice that is alarming or out of place in their environment.

Now, our wild creatures are adapting to our rural lifestyle. Deer drive us crazy, eating not only our flowers, but also destroying our fruit trees and ending up practically in our homes.

We have a group of pheasants and quail that live in our backyard. They love to eat the broken pecans and any old corn that is left in the garden. We have one big, beautiful rooster that comes right up to the back steps to find the nuts that are stepped on along the walkway. He is the boss of everyone.

The biggest problem now, with the pheasants is that we must cover all our rows of bean and corn with wire until they get a good start or otherwise they will go right down the row and eat the seed up where it is planted even before it sprouts. How they know where to locate the seeds is beyond me.

When I was a child the only problems we had was with the bobcats, owls, raccoons, hawks, skunks and weasels that ate our chickens and domestic turkeys. I am just waiting for the night a mountain lion arrives at our doorstep.

As you know, they follow the deer herds.

The big hoot owls are still here every night, along with the cries of the coyotes and the raccoons that like to climb a tree above the dog's pens and tease the dogs.