The underside of a felled Douglas Fir tree.
(cont.) I gathered up these little babies, and out of the corner of my eye…I saw mama turkey carefully approaching……
….so did Penni, just fractions of a second before I did..but that was enough time for her brain to excite her body into “chase mode” and off she went. Mama turkey immediately took flight. I looked around the area, checking carefully before each step. Wild turkey poults instinctively hide, low and silent in tall grass. They are very difficult to see. Knowing that there were hidden babies right around me, I had to be careful not to step without caution.
A hidden poult! With her head slightly raised, this one was actually a little easier to see.
Penni’s distraction away from the hiding poults gave me a chance to assess the condition of the little ones I had been holding. If you will remember, Penni is a wanna-be-mama-dog. She has helped raise up all 4 broods of chicks, protecting them from hawks, and if Tucker or Karli got too close (she let them know in no uncertain terms that they shouldn’t get any closer to her chicks.)
Making sure all is right with her little puppy-chicks.
I was confident that these beauties were perfectly fine. They were very young, and were still sporting that fashionable egg-tooth.
Still sporting a prominent egg tooth.
They were playing “possum” hoping I wouldn’t see them.
My shirt was doing double duty, acting as, well, a shirt…and also a catch for the poults. They lay quietly in their cocoon, huddled together looking at me with their big eyes…I was surprised at how much larger their eyes are than chicken chicks eyes.
Wild Turkey poult #1. The first little one found by Penni.
Kermit!!! See how much small her eyes are compared to the wild turkey poult.
Following her nose, Penni came bounding back directly to me and the poults. She nudged the buldge in my slinged shirt, indicating that she needed to check on the babies. I let her take a quick look, and big sniff into the pile of young poults…and as is Penni’s style…she gave them a lick (No, not to taste them!!)
Hoping that mama turkey would not be afraid to come back another time, I walked towards the house. My plan…as long as I had the poults, Penni would follow…she did! Securing her inside the garage, I headed back. In the background, Penni shouted her protests…loudly! By this time, my daughter had gotten home and joined me in the quest to reunite the family. She held a couple of the poults in her sweater, while we sat behind a tree….and we waited……
(To be continued)….please come back tomorrow to read the rest of the story.
Hoping you have a wonderful weekend
Tami
Build Me a Dream 
Written by tntdreaming
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