Turkey Time Canadian That Is

Nature Earl Plato

It was mid-morning when we turned on to Wilhelm Road off Highway No.3. We could see the snow-covered road ahead of us. Snow drifts had corrugated the north bound way. It was late March. Go ahead? We did bucking the small drifts to Concession No. 2. We turned west where there was negligible drifting. As we approached White Road to our right, Elaine exclaimed, Look over there!” There in a large open field to the north were numerous specks. “Canadas? No they aren’t. Look at the way they walk,” I said. Usually I have my bird glasses and camera. Not this time. Naked eyes must suffice. As they approached closer to us we knew what they were. We had seen much smaller flocks in the Ridgeway area. We started counting. “ten, twenty, thirty, forty .... fifty-two!” That was my count. Elaine counted forty-eight Wild turkeys. They moved away eastwards from our parked car headed east across the snow-covered corn field to the sanctuary of the woods. An amazing sight! Averaging our counts we had seem circa fifty large birds - the Canadian wild turkeys.
We wound the windows down. I wanted to hear the familiar gobble of
domestic turkeys. No gobbles this day but there were clucks and yes, yelps. The larger turkeys had to be males. Mature males are about 48 inches (122 cm) in body length while females are about 36 inches (91 cm). We did not see any of the males spread their huge fan-like tails.
Remember these birds were on the run. Wild turkeys can move quickly.
No time to show off to the girls.
We weren’t finished yet. After our return trip from Welland and a brief stop at my daughter’s place in Port Colborne we headed back home down No. 3 highway. It was approaching supper time. Ridgeway neighbour, Len Noake, told us to take a look for Wild turkeys in the fields to the northwest off Wilhelm Road. Good advice. There on the edge of the woods we counted about twenty Wild turkeys.
What a Wild turkey day! Be alert in nature for who knows what you might see.