Massachusetts state officials are warning the public to stay away from Wild Turkeys during the present strutting season, according to the April 18 (Thursday’s) edition of the Boston Globe. The newspaper reported that a pregnant woman had been “surrounded by turkeys that pecked at her legs, leaving visible welts.”
We’ve never had that problem in many years of close encounters of the turkey kind, but maybe those turkeys to the south of us were just copying the incivility that seems to be rampant in some parts of the country nowadays.
Nonetheless, Toms are strutting now and hens are submitting all over the place. (The full ritual and consummation are not exactly balletic; we’ll spare you those images.)
Coincidentally, the images shown here were taken on Thursday, the day that the Globe article appeared. However, these are Brooklin Toms; they have proper manners. We even think that we heard the Tom on the left say, “How ya’ doin’?”. (Brooklin, Maine)