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Duel At Dawn

This morning at dawn, out of our North Fork window I saw two turkey duels going on, no doubt determining pecking order, i.e. who gets the babes and who chooses roosting spots at night. I grabbed my camera and shot pics for almost an hour before going back to my cold scrambled eggs and toast. the loser of the contest I was following eventually ran off, and the winner of the 2nd duel, who had been hanging around, stepped in and challenged the winner.

Oblivious to everything else, they sometimes came within 3 feet of me as if I weren’t there.

There didn’t seem to be any violence intended, just a pushing match of breasts and heads. There were no sounds made. When they are in real fights it gets prtetty loud.The one that managed to get his beak in the other’s mouth seemed to have the advantage. They were mostly in the shade, but occasionally got out into the sunrise light where the iridescence of the feathers could be seen. The mating season has begun.

Coincidentally, at the same time this morning, a bluebird has started attacking its reflection in the deck door glass. This gets to be irritating because they attack all the windows for months, and leave their droppings on all the door handles. We even removed the bird house this year, but to no avail.

Judging by the length of their combs (the feathers hanging down between them, they are not the big old toms that rule the roost and strut around in a group of about 15. These, I’m guessing, are the next generation, who will eventually challenge and take their places.

The challenge:

turkey 2

The winner of the other duel waits his turn to take on the winner of this one.

Turkey 1

The battle begins.

turkey 4

They came so close that they almost touched me.

turkey 5

The fight ended in the bushes.

turkey 6

turkey 7

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