The Forum Has Moved!

Varied Thrush, 3-26-10. Photos taken through window looking out to backyard. Clickable

Beautiful animals everyone! Wow--and I'm a very big fan of red-tailed hawks--eiguoc--those are gorgeous.

This is the end of mating season for the wild turkeys in my neighborhood--but the males are still acting very territorial. Yesterday this male came onto the deck to push my cat away from where he wanted to go! Enjoy this video of him going in and out of "display" of all of his beautiful feathers.

His feathers pop up like a paper Thanksgiving turkey decoration--perfectly up, then perfectly down. The final parts of the display are when he extends his wings down to the ground and drags them (for noise) and then he shakes his whole body and hisses! (no shaking or hissing in this video!)

Click here for video Male Turkey in Full Display

Birdsie I have watched your video at least 4 times and I still can't get over how beautiful and regal he looks. You are SO LUCKY to have him visit you.

Beautiful trush & watched the tom strut his stuff again

Ed--I love your woodpeckers! Aren't they funny and they stay at the feeder a long time.

I have never seen a Varied Thrush--they are gorgeous! such subtle coloration--but beautiful!

Ed, those long, tall eagle photos are spectacular. How lucky you are to have them so near!

Here are some young wild turkeys sitting on my suet trellis. I don't think they were really here for the suet, I think they just like perching up high on things. They sleep every night in high tree branches. They are about 6 weeks old here. I have only seen this once in many years--one or two will come and sit--but never this many before. It is comical to see how much they sway when one baby jumps off.

Their mother shows up below them so you can compare sizes. Watch on full screen for better view.

Click here for Video Turkey Babies on a Trellis

Hi Birdsie: Enjoyed the turkey videos. Nice music with the young ones as they left one by one from their suet perch. I do have some questions on the neat video of the turkey in full display. You mentioned that it was trying to intimidate your cat.
Who won, the turkey or the cat? Also did you shoot your video from inside your house or outside? I've found that I can get pictures of birds while looking through a window, but they fly away the moment I go out the back door. Was the turkey in full display aware of your presence? Thanks, and I'll be looking for more videos from you.

Quote by: edkeagle

Hi Birdsie: Enjoyed the turkey videos. Nice music with the young ones as they left one by one from their suet perch. I do have some questions on the neat video of the turkey in full display. You mentioned that it was trying to intimidate your cat.
Who won, the turkey or the cat? Also did you shoot your video from inside your house or outside? I've found that I can get pictures of birds while looking through a window, but they fly away the moment I go out the back door. Was the turkey in full display aware of your presence? Thanks, and I'll be looking for more videos from you.

Hi Ed --I'm so glad you enjoyed the videos.

My cat was sitting at the back door for the Tom turkey video. I was filming from inside--for the exact reason you mentioned--the animals flee the second I turn the latch!

The back door is a wooden door with 10 panes of glass. The turkeys like to come right up to it and check all the corners for spiders! which they like to eat!!! The cat was in the way--and the turkey was trying to get him to move.

When I carefully put my camera and tripod on my side of the glass, the turkeys see something and back up a little--I try to hide as much as I can--but they respond to any motion. Also, I think I let the cat in during the video--so that could have been why the turkey moved away, too.