bluego28

Just when you think you are starting to understand this quarry of ours, something happens which which lets you know that there is still much to understand.
Heres what happened to me on the second day of the New Jersey turkey season, which I know many of you will have trouble believing but nonetheless happened exactly as told.
Prior to the season I roosted a group of mature toms and built a makeshift blind some 80 yards from their roosting tree. That morning I reached my blind a half hour prior to first light (I find the blind by counting steps and checking my compass). Right on schedule, the toms began gobbling, singly and by the whole group...it was great..everything looked perfect. Every quiet cluck or yelp I made brought a thunderous response. What happened next is what usually happens, the real hens showed up and soon moved off in the opposite direction with the toms in tow.
I decided to wait it out to see if they would return when the hens split up and continued my calling through the morning. The toms did come back but not from where I thought. I could hear them coming through the dry leaves directly behind me.
Two of the toms spotted my three decoy setup and began to move towards them, but the other two hung up right behind me, preventing me from making any motion.
The two toms in front never got to the dekes but turned and started to walk off. I could hear the two behind me do likewise. Once they began to fade into the brush, I was able to throw a couple of clucks their way and all four answered with a full gobble not 40 yards away. They all turned and headed straight for the dekes. The rest was textbook.
Since all four toms were similar, I took the first one to offer a clean shot. At 30 yards the 10guage/rhino combination shooting Nitro hevis has a way of putting a bird down with little or no flapping and this was no exception.
This is when the wierdness started. Two of the other toms flew off but the third ran no more than 10 yards, turned and headed back directly towards the downed tom. I had seen this happen before so I had a rough idea of what was about to happen and settled back to watch the show.
As I expected, the returning tom went directly to the dead bird stood on top of him and attacked him viciously with his beak, claws and spurs, repeatedly raking him with one foot then the other. The bird on the ground made one final twitch, causing his attacker to leap straight up 3 or 4 feet.
While this was going on I had taken out my throwaway camera and began taking pictures. I knew that at 30 yards in dark woods the pictures would not be great but better than nothing.
Just as suddenly as the attack started, it ended and the attacking bird began trying to mate with the dead tom which had died breast down in a normal hens mating position. The tom covered the dead bird and began humping away. I have no idea of of what he may have accomplished but I expect not much since he finally drew back and began the humping process from the side and once again from the front. I am sure the tom on top was attempting to mate... I have witnessed the real thing on numerous occasions.
Almost 10 minutes had gone by and I decide it was time to pick up my bird and go home. I stood up in full view, expecting to see the tom blast out of there....nothing. The bird stopped trying to mate and began tearing at the dead birds head with his beak while holding his neck down with his foot. The action looked just like a hawk tearing chunks out of a dead rabbit.
I took a few steps closer, took more pictures and still no reaction. To my amazement I was able to continue until I was less than 15 yards away, in full view, still taking pictures. At this point I ran out of film but I continued to advance one step at a time, fully exposed and making no special effort to be quiet.
I finally stopped LESS THAN 5 FEET from the bird and just stood ther looking down at them. Occasionally the bird would look up at me and then go right back to tearing away at the dead bird' s head. I believe he was tearing off small pieces of meat and eating them. The head had been shot up already, making the process easier. I stood like this for a full two minutes looking down at a wild turkey methodically shredding his erstwhile companions head.
In a " why not" frame of mind I decided to see if I could actually touch him.. As I reached out to him he finally stepped away from the dead bird walked a few steps away from me, gave two alarm putts and calmly walked away.
So what we have here is a killer, homosexual, necrophiliac, cannibal turkey which has almost no fear of humans. Makes you wonder what might happen if his gene pool spreads too widely...maybe I should have shot him (just Kidding).
I would like very much too hear if others have ever witnessed anything like this. I would also welcome any theories which might help explain all this.

Antler Eater

First let me say congratulations!

Second, I loved your account of the morning. It is great when a plan comes together isn' t it.

I have indeed witnessed similar behavior to what you have described with the exception of walking up that close to the live bird. When the hormones are raging in these birds like they are you do see bizarre behavior. In the bird world (and elsewhere for that matter) breeding season is something else. I have seen a cardinal for example pick a fight with it' s own reflection in a window and end up breaking it' s neck in the process. [X(]

trapper T

I think Antler Eater makes a good point with the hormone theory.It is probably most of the reason for the actions,not homosexuallity.The thing that came to my mind was, a dominance act.Dogs will dry hump other animals that are usually smaller, even small children or your leg.I learned a while back that it has nothing to do with sex, but dominance. With the dead Tom showing weakness the live tom was now showing that he was king of this" hill" .But the hormones probably played a part in this scene.And Congrats on the Tom

Buckeye Mike

That sounds like the experience of a lifetime. I have never seen anything like that although I have heard of similar situations except the turkeys ran as soon as the hunter showed himself.

[email protected]

I' ll bet you can' t wait to see how the pictures turn out. Cool story and congrats on the tom.

T_in_PA2

Last week I video taped pretty much what you describe but with a decoy. There was two gobblers beating on a decoy but for 12 minutes one of them kept pecking, mounting, beating the decoy even though it lay on it' s side. The other would leave, come back, leave, come back. It was almost comical. It does show how ruthless gobblers can be on bird lower in the pecking order.

btw.. the decoy' s head is all pecked up. They go for the eye!

who_else

i was golfing today and i saw two swans humping the day away in front of me, i was laughing so hard that the people across the pond yelled at me for being loud, it was so funny, and u have a gay turkey is soming to be worried about. lol, who_else