Thursday, May 28, 2015

Twin Toms

     Sometimes animals are just funny. Funny looking.  Funny acting. If you watch wild turkeys for very long, you see lots of goofiness.  These two gobblers entertained us all spring and are still hanging around, hoping to score with some desperate hen. Chances are that one of them have accomplished some mating as most hens have started their nests some weeks ago. Now these twin boys seem lost as they roam around all day hoping to attract one more hen while the mating hormones are in high gear. So they strut together, performing their anachronistic ritual in perfect unison.They walk together, gobble together and get snubbed together.  Identified with seemingly identical genes, they seem forever inseparable. While not necessarily a bird of the prairie, Rio Grande Turkeys frequent the woody draws of the Red Hills and are often found roaming on the grasslands. The hens search out good prairie cover for nesting so, as usual, the prairie is important to even typically woodland-associated species.
Tom 1 and Tom 2 do everything together.  

Tom 1 and Tom 2 in unison gobble.

Tom 1 and Tom 2 try, try, try to impress her and she just keeps eating, ignoring their best performances.

2 comments:

  1. Love it, Ken! That footage of the perky twins and the nonchalant female is priceless.

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    1. Glad you enjoyed it. As regular visitors to our place this spring, it was such a normal behavior between the Toms and the hens, the latter seemingly oblivious in spite of relentless courting efforts by the gobblers.

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