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!!!]
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