Now I can honestly say I’ve seen my very first wild turkey offspring or poult as they’re called.
A wild turkey hen and her three poults have been spending mornings in a forested area just down the road from my house, and I got a chance to check them out this week.
I know it’s probably not that rare, but it is the first time I personally have ever seen young wild turkeys. From what I saw, I would say gobblers are something like cats; a lot cuter when they’re babies.
The three little poults did not venture too far from mom though, just long enough to hide in the tall grass while I was trying to snap a photo (& dealing with dieing batteries)
The hen would make a few soft ‘calls’ and the poults then reappeared from the tall grass….
Now I ask you, how cute is that?
Outdoorsguy
Hey Jeff Last Monday they cut the field beside my house just a strip around the out side of it , my wife was doing the dishes looking out the window and she said there were two hens walking with about 25 little ones and only 5feet away from the fence , it would have been nice to see myself . my wife said they did that because i was at work and the season is not open .
Hey Jeff great picture but one looks like the BEEP! BEEP! the road runner. LOL.
Hey Paul…great sighting at your place…its funny, my wife always see’s a big buck at my place when Im at work…then she calls me on the phone to brag about it..hehe
That one poult does look like the roadrunner..I noticed that too…its a long stick in the background that looks like a tail….btw, that photo was not the one I took…with my dieing batteries, I never did get a shot of the little ones…I’ll be heading to your place for that (Could you please ask your wife to put on some coffee)
Outdoorsguy
This is great. I am glad that you got a chance to take their picture. I have only seen a large turkey.
A “poult” you say….Thanks Jeff just goes to show ‘you’re never too old to learn’. I was not aware that this is what they were. I have seen several poults however. The most significant was in Vermont where we saw at least 20 poults with their respective parents travelling in a group. These ones were a couple months older though which brings me to this question; when are they no longer a poult ? (I have pics if you’re interested)
Hey Trapper, please send your ‘poult pics’..I’ll see if I can put them up here.
From I read it seems they’re called poults almost till the end of the first year. Then the male poult becomes a jake by next spring and the female becomes a hen.
And it seem that 10 or more poults are common for a healthy hen..not sure why the one I saw only had 3. Could be a younger hen I suppose…or perhaps something happened to the rest of them…
Outdoorsguy
You called my bluff…now I have to dig into the dreaded photo file which will turn into a few hour walk down memory lane……I’ll send them.
just tip toe thru the toulips there trap not memory lane lol
pics sent…..
I wanna see!!