Something New

I’ve seen wild turkey a lot of times. Many years ago, now, the State of Kansas re-introduced turkey to many areas and they have since flourished. I’m not a hunter, so my experience with turkey has been to see a flock at the side of a road or once in a great while in a tree. And while I’ve seen many, today I experienced something I have never, I think, experienced before.
This morning a tom was strutting his stuff out back of the house when I pulled the shades. His hen was feeding at the feeder a neighbor has out and the tom was ever watchful and letting everyone know that he was there. Now, I’ve seen that before. What I’ve not done is hear a tom gobble. I did this morning.
He was a young bird, if my Internet information was correct. His tail feathers had one or two missing from them, so he didn’t have a perfect fan tail. His beard wasn’t that long, but he was truly a beautiful sight and sound.
I looked around for additional hens, but didn’t see any. Evidently, this is a one-woman tom. But that’s OK because they put on quite a show for us this morning. We have to observe them quietly, mostly from inside because they are wild enough to spook if we go out on the back patio. I did however, manage to get the back door slid open so I could hear the gobble several times before they went into the woods.
Although I have yet to see some of the other critters one might expect to see…raccoon, opossum, skunk, and the occasional fox, I’m sure they’re there. The habitat is just too good and the cover is just to plentiful for those animals to not be present in the wooded area of that park. I’m a little at a loss to explain the relative dearth of various species of birds there, especially compared to the number of birds I saw in Topeka along the Shunga Creek. However, maybe they will come a little later on in the year.
But for now, I will just enjoy the turkey, deer, cardinals, ducks, robins, and others as spring awakens the earth in Wichita, Kansas.