Hi Inger,
I would have to check HANZAB (which I don't have on hand) but I think I
recall that many females will lay in the one mound. Can someone confirm
that? If so, mating for life is highly unlikely.
Regards,
Chris
On Sun, Jul 20, 2008 at 7:13 PM, L&L Knight <>
wrote:
> G'day Inger
>
> I had a mound behind my back fence years ago. My answers are as follows:
>
> 1. No. He sounds like a deviate
>
> 2. I doubt it.
>
> 3. Male turkeys don't appreciate females messing about with their mounds.
>
> 4. Depends on what you mean a family. The parents don't tend to the chicks
> that emerge [around dawn I think]. You may get a creche forming where the
> young turkeys band together. I've seen groups of three walking about
> together - with the birds separated by a week or two in age [visibly
> different in size].
>
> 5. From memory, mating happens early in the morning as well. It's a fairly
> physical affair, with the male appearing to give the female a tough time
> while she digs a hole for the egg. He certainly stretches the skin at the
> back of the neck when they do the deed.
>
> Regards, Laurie.
>
>
>
>
> On 20/07/2008, at 6:56 PM, inger vandyke wrote:
>
>
>> Hi Syd,
>>
>> We have just moved to a spot between Byron and the Gold Coast and we have
>> a mound about 10m away from our back door. Mr Turk (I call him
>> Testosteronus maximus due to the size of his wattles) has been actively
>> excavating and renovating it since we arrived. He catapults stuff all over
>> the place, sometimes with such vigour that he sends stuff flying around 2m
>> into the air.
>>
>> I have, however, noticed a couple of odd bits of behaviour which I hope
>> some of you can assist with (especially since I am a philistine of Scrub
>> Turkey activities).
>>
>> 1. As I was unpacking boxes, I sat on the back step watching Test do his
>> thing while I ate an apple. He dropped everything and came tearing over to
>> me so obviously the previous tenants have been feeding him. I gave him a
>> tiny piece of apple (I know I shouldn't do this - sorry!) and he did
>> something really strange. To eat it, he splayed his entire body out on the
>> ground with his wings out and wattles resting while he ate. Is this normal?
>>
>> 2. Do Scrub Turkeys also mate for life?
>>
>> 3. There is a female hanging around but he chases her around
>> relentlessly, especially if she goes anywhere near his construction work.
>>
>> 4. Is there a likelihood we'll have a family out the back?
>>
>> Any thoughts or input from Scrub Turkey experts would be appreciated.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Inger
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Inger Vandyke
>>
>> Natural History Writer and Photographer
>>
>> Publicity Officer - Southern Oceans Seabird Study Association (SOSSA)
>>
>> Mob: 0402 286 437
>>
>>
>>
>> www.ingervandyke.com
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Date: Sun, 20 Jul 2008 17:47:34 +1000
>>> From:
>>> To:
>>> Subject: [Birding-Aus] A Scrub Turkey anecdote
>>>
>>>
>>> WARNING: Long posting. Delete now if not interested in Megapodes.
>>>
>>> -------------
>>>
>>> [Tamborine Mountain is inland from the Gold Coast. St Bernard's Hotel
>>> and
>>> the associated Mt Tamborine Motel are towards the southern end of the
>>> plateau.]
>>>
>>> No accounting for Scrub Turkeys! St Bernard's Hotel is built just back
>>> from
>>> the steep drop over the side of the plateau. The motel runs lengthways
>>> parallel to the scarp, just to the west of the Hotel. There's a swimming
>>> pool beside the motel on the side away from the scarp, and a gap,
>>> bitumen-sealed, that would be just wide enough to get a small car along
>>> between the end of the Motel/pool and a high netting (chain-wire) fence.
>>> Rainforest trees just the other side of the fence.
>>>
>>> One approaches the motel from the south and there's a large sealed area
>>> serving as parking space for the motel and overflow parking for the Pub.
>>> In the south-west corner of it, there's a "garden" bed, about 5 m wide,
>>> along the fence, with a couple of trees in it. And at the top (motel)
>>> end
>>> of it Turk has built his mound.
>>>
>>> Now there's not much in the way of leaves to be gathered from a treeless
>>> sealed area. And you can't rake leaves through a netting fence. So
>>> where
>>> does Turk get his mound material? From the garden along the edge of the
>>> scarp on the far side of the motel. He has to move the material 50 m
>>> along
>>> the sealed path. Amazing!
>>>
>>> At first sight, it looked to me as though the hotel groundsman had made a
>>> dump of leaves etc., but then I found Turk on top of it and there could
>>> be
>>> no doubt it was his doing. And I wondered where he could have got the
>>> material. Didn't occur to me that he would consider getting it from
>>> beyond
>>> the motel ... and then I found him vigorously hurling leaf-mould out of
>>> the
>>> garden onto the lawn in front of our unit. And later I noted that the
>>> mound
>>> had a lot of the very distinctive 'ferny' leaves of the Silky Oak and the
>>> only Silky Oak tree is right on the edge of the scarp.
>>>
>>> When we arrived Thursday lunch-time the path was clean and bare. By the
>>> time we left, (Sat. morning) the scarp end of it of was a mess again.
>>> Poor
>>> Chris. I quizzed him this morning, and yes, he'd swept the path clean
>>> Thursday morning. I hope whenever he does, that he adds it to the mound.
>>> (Chris and Vicki Howe operate the motel.)
>>>
>>> Amazingly vigorous 'raking' that bird has. He simply hurls material back
>>> behind him. And if it contains any dense object it will fly through the
>>> air
>>> for three to five metres!
>>>
>>> Seemed to me to be a bit early (mid-July) for an active mound, but he was
>>> right into it; fully developed wattles and all.
>>>
>>> Cheers.
>>>
>>> Syd
>>>
>>> [BTW - Whipbird calling just through the netting fence. And in previous
>>> years I've heard Albert's Lyrebirds in the valley below the cliff. Didn't
>>> check this year.
>>>
>>> Oh yes! And the Hotel does have a real St Bernard dog. He's HUGE!!!]
>>> ===============================
>>> www.birding-aus.org
>>> birding-aus.blogspot.com
>>>
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>>> send the message:
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>>> to:
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>>>
>>
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