Sunday 26 December 2010

Christmas bird count

We had goldfinch, chickadees, juncos, 7 mourning doves, woodpeckers, and 28 wild turkeys.


First the wild turkeys...we had six.  The turkeys were hilarious.



Then the goldfinches, various woodpeckers, ravens.



By the afternoon, 28 had massed on the back lawn.
Yep! There were 6 turkeys this morning, 28 by the afternoon. I couldn't believe it! Scratching away in the snow for bird seed (0:30). At 1:50, the turkeys stopped, moved into the forest after our 3 deer went scrambling across the gully up the hill. I watched, and spotted a wolf (2:20). I couldn't believe it. All I caught was a shadow of it.


You can see them walk into the backyard in single file!

7 comments:

eileeninmd said...

Wow, that is a lot of turkeys. Do you put corn down for them to eat. Wonderful videos, I enjoyed watching them.

Yogi♪♪♪ said...

Wow, you are first cousin to Mother Nature.

Linda said...

I love your videos of the wild turkeys. I must get out and photograph so that are around here. We had quite a few birds on Christmas Day ... about 6 bluejays, lots of juncos, many sparrows, some doves, 2 large crows, and a cardinal.

Linda said...

Hi Jennifer, I just saw your video of the deer in your garden on The Weather Network. Well done.

Gill - That British Woman said...

I was going to ask the same question do you feed the turkeys and with what?

Gill

Jenn Jilks said...

I was too sick to REALLY go for a bird count. Maybe next year!
We feed the birds, technically turkeys are birds, but they seem to like the bird seed.
I put out a mix of black sunflower and cracked corn. The blue jays and woodpeckers (check the short video!) knock the cracked corn onto the ground for the mourning doves, as well as the sunflower seeds they don't seem to like, and the turkeys are eating what is falling to the ground.

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

Christmas Magic! Thanks for sharing. (I'm late catching iup, but the post is of course perfect for any time.) Happy New Year.