Headed to the Eastern Shore for some birding Thanksgiving morning and ended up at Assateague about 2:30 in the afternoon.  Somewhere around 3:30 pm Jon and I were at Life of the Marsh and low and behold - two hen wild turkeys were walking up the boardwalk, coming straight at us, slowly foraging.   Unlike every other wild turkey I've ever seen, they seemed unfazed by our presence.  I even gobbled at them (incredibly poorly) and they ignored me!  

We snapped pictures of them - our Thanksgiving Turkeys!  They kept slowly making their way towards us, and we started thinking they must be tame and that we wouldn't be able to count them (first of year in Maryland for us, believe it or not!).   So then we started talking to the turkeys, asking them what the deal was, and how was THEIR Thanksgiving?  One looked at us for awhile, eyed the brush nearby, but then put her head down again and kept foraging.   

Tame dang turkeys. 

Well, about that time a small family appeared on the boardwalk, well behind the turkeys.  Those birds did a bonafide wild-turkey disappearing act, and were gone in micro seconds.  

Wild Turkeys.  I'm counting them.  

Why they ignored us, I dunno.  Maybe because they were approaching us?   Or maybe because they thought a pair of folks out on Thanksgiving, holding binoculars and sayin' stuff like "wow, another yellow-rump over there!", instead of gathering around a feast table could be considered bonafide turkeys, too.  


Joanne

Joanne Howl, DVM

West River, MD

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