Lilo, you have outdone yourself with this photo. The family must feel safe with you in order to get that close.
We go to a teaching farm here in the valley and we walk through a wild habitat including wild turkeys. During mating season there are signs warning about staying away from the birds because they could attack, then during fall months we're warned not to approach any family of birds, because they are very protective of their flock.
You have a unique view, from your back porch.

Here is the first picture I took, through my window (cropping helps) they were coming out from the brush, I just happened to look to my right and saw them.
During mating time they stay away and they were not around while the babies were small; the grass is too tall and the children get lost, so they stay away

Marvelous! What time of the afternoon do they usually come out? I've only seen wild turkeys in New York State around dusk, and only deep in the forest.

Great pictures. Just saw a small flock in July on the driving range down the road, but that was most likely the last time in the neighborhood, the land was sold and becomes another 15 houses. Too late in the game to move in the wilds.

Lilo, your 2nd pic of them makes me think of musical notes on display in your own backyard. Good shot!

Once, at the cabin in the woods, I saw a covey of turkeys meander by----young ones in the center and all adults kept a safety perimeter around the outside to guide and protect them.
Overwhelming in beauty and devotion.

---And I got to see it only because I was THERE.
--All these years later, the memory of it is still so beautiful.
A mere onlooker remembers them so well.

Love it, Lilo! You keep taking me back to my childhood. There is just something really special about THE coast and all of the state that abuts it.

I wish I had your eyes KJ! you have such a good eye for the harmony in life.

Robin---you said it---and it's the inner eye.
My eyesight was almost toally lost in one eye due to measles as a kid---and the left eye is getting weaker
as time goes by.

So we dance and sing what we want to 'see'
and in our dreams we can just fly along
the flow of time and be where we want to be!

(Robin, you must have some great love, or great happenings in your life, now----
you are on a new trip of joy and I'm so happy for you!)

Kathyjane, I hope you don't mind, but your poem is now on my pinwall next to my desk.
Thank you.

I am happy, joyful, peaceful... full of laughter

Anneliese,
you give me an honor I truly haven't earned;
I have a pastry puff brain and stuff just pops out
laughing or crying.
---But, I thank you for your sweetness and for always BEING sweet, no matter the topic or the weather! :o)

Did you all see the PBS Nature program, "My Life As A Turkey "? A must see, if you haven't already.

My life as a turkey on Youtube.

Here is a link that might be useful: youtube

No, have not seen the program but keep my eyes open for a repeat. Watched the YouTube video just now. We always thinking of the hundreds of turkeys crammed in a turkey farm and there they are stupid, just like hundreds of people crammed together somewhere since they were babies tend not to think as individuals. In the wild, and small coveys, a tom turkey and a couple of hens in a backyard, it is different. You have a very good competition for a watchdog or a gander and his flock. Farmers used to keep them for that purpose where I come from and I just a soon face a dog then a tom turkey. Their wings hurt and they also use their beak and those sharp toes. They know who belongs and who is a stranger.

West, thank you for the Youtube segment----they look like dinosaurs at eye level!!!

The first time I saw a wild turkey, I was struck how skinny they were, then I wondered how they got from there to a Butterball turkey. Perhaps I don't want to know.

Here's the full program, from PBS. It's worth watching, believe me.

Here is a link that might be useful: My Life As a Turkey