2011 06 06 turkey

Lake Park Birders,

I just noticed that I have posted any updates to this blog since November 2010 about recent sightings, so I will be adding old sightings here and there.

Paul Hunter
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[wisb] Lake Park Wild Turkey!!! (Milwaukee, 6/6/11)
• From: "B.G. Sloan"
• To: wisbirdn
• Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2011 14:52:44 -0700 (PDT)

... I decided to head to nearby Lake Park ... near the end of my walk, at about 1:15PM, I turned a corner on a Lake Park sidewalk and came face to face with a female Wild Turkey! The hen had come up out of the Locust Street Ravine and was checking out some gone-to-seed dandelion heads. She didn't seem particularly concerned by my presence. Eventually I got within about 15 feet and started "talking turkey" (quiet noises that approximate gobbling...it's worked for me in past turkey encounters). The turkey cocked her head from side to side and looked at me quizically for several minutes. Then she grew bored, crossed the sidewalk, and entered the woods on the Lake Michigan bluff. Within seconds I lost sight of her.

This was the closest encounter I've had with a Wild Turkey since I had a small flock of turkeys frequenting my Urbana (IL) neighborhood from 2005-2007 (I memorialized these birds in an op-ed piece in the local newspaper there. See: http://bit.ly/cDEHIU).

Interestingly, this isn't a new Milwaukee BIGBY species for me: I had a quick glimpse of one south of Lakeshore State Park in April, and I'm pretty certain I'd heard a hen call in the Locust Street Ravine in Lake Park after that. But this interaction was way cooler!! :-)

Bernie Sloan
Milwaukee
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