3 Wise Men

When I was younger, my dad once told me, big bucks don't get big by being stupid. I believe that there is allot of truth to that statement. I also believe that it goes with more animals than just deer. As some of you may have already found out for yourselves from hunting, photography, or birding, that birds can be the smartest critters there is. I think that this is especially true for wild gamebirds. It seems odd to me that you can search and search for these things, and come up without a trace; they disappear, they can be invisible, they are ghosts. Yet you look out of the kitchen window, and they can be found digging up your backyard in search for food. Over spring break, I found that these three gobblers spent some of their time in the afternoon scratching around the Northern Red Oak tree in my back yard.

 

Though these birds are leaving themselves vulnerable in the open like this, there is no doubt in my mind that they are very wise.

These boys got some ropes on em' eh!?

 

 

One of them seems to have a busted, and slightly deformed spur. It could be from getting shot, maybe an unsuccessful attack from a predator, or even disease. Or maybe he was just in a gobbler scuffle. Either way, the leg knob that this guy is yielding gives him character, if you ask me.

 

You can see the unusual spur on the right birds' right leg as these two do their turkey scratchin' line dance.

Here is a better view of the spur.

 

I watched these birds for a good ten minutes, how one bird would take watch as the other two had their heads down picking, taking turns watching their perimeter, scratching at the ground, sending each other certain vocalizations which I'm sure each had their own meaning.

 

Two birds scratchin', with one always keeping watch.

 

These guys seemed to be more concerned with the corn kernels and bird seed that they were finding, rather than me and my camera; as soon as I started to get a little bit restless, they had had enough of my presence, and the 3 wise men made their retreat back to the safety in the stand of hardwood which they came from.

 

The last of the three birds bringing up the rear, as they scurried back into the forest.