out of season

This turkey nest is out of season. I wonder if the turkey knows more than us . the nest is far from being completed , it has to get a lot bigger before the females will look at it.

Maybe she is after a High Set because of the rain Gwen...

Hey cool, turkey for Xmas lunch

C.heryl I reckon they would be as tough as goat's knees. Pity they are protected.

Oh well, good for making compost heaps then

So you can't mulch anything then as she will steal it?

They love the straw best of all and think I put it there as nesting material.
They will move any mound nest material 100 meters across gardens and lawns to where they want to put it, they have very powerful legs to take big amounts in one backwards scratch.
As we have lots of small stones all through our red soil[great for drainage] the turkey leaves a stony trail all across the lawn areas[not good for thr mowers] .
This time I 'm trialing the green mulch from the dump . So far Mr Turkey has left alone the mulch on the garden, but has holes dug in the huge heap of mulch like they dig in their mound ready for the females to lay their eggs .Its only the males who make the mounds.

... and so they should, why should we be th eonly makes to have to make the love nest

It is wonderful to have wildlife nesting so close to home but I can see what you mean with the mulch When do they normally nest... spring? I read somewhere the other day that we could be in for a warmer than average winter so they may think that spring is coming again

I've only ever seen one lone turkey here, occasionally passes through the gully in the paddock. Also caught it flying up and eating our bananas a few years ago I suppose that is one good thing about our bananas not fruiting lately

look at this site, see the pics of suburban turkey.

http://www.wildlifeqld.com.au/Brush_Turkeys.html#br

Forgot to mention , they have acres of forest to build ,yet the pictured nest is less than 30 foot from our house.They used to nest in my garden beds until I allowed the dogs to chase them to the boundry of the yard.the dogs know the turkey are allowed to be in the bush, but as soon as they start a scratch in the yard they get sent packing . They fly high up into the trees when the dogs go after them.

Your little Mr Bean and his friend are very useful then!!

I wonder if the Turkey's would leave garden mulch alone if a pile of mulch was dumped close by the nest site. Has anyone tried that and if so, what happened?

Funny you shoud say that My 8 meters [1 truck] of mulch was dumped about 3feet from the nest and all the turkey did was to dig holes in the mulch, I recon he thinks its a ready made mound put there for him.At least none of the mulch that John spread has been touched.