Date: 7/8/26 7:43 pm From: nic korte <nkorte1...> Subject: [cobirds] Turkey nesting and families...
On June 27, NE of Collbran at about 7000 ft I encountered a hen turkey and eleven chicks. The chicks were about the size of feral pigeons in height. I suspect these chicks had to have been at least two weeks old, meaning hatching would have been about June 14. This was a rural road and they fluttered across.
Today, July 8, about 10 miles away and at approximately the same elevation, I encountered another hen turkey and chicks standing on the side of a well-traveled paved road. If you have picked up a wild turkey egg, then you can visualize the size of these chicks. Hatching must have been yesterday if not early this morning. Thus, it was interesting to observe at least a three-week range in hatching.
I stopped the car about five feet from the hen. She ran across the road as the tiny chicks followed. One did not make it. It was lying in the middle of the road flopping about as most of you have seen when a creature has been hit by a car. I watched. The hen ran back, stuck its beak within a few inches of the chick as if to sniff it, then whirled and ran back to the rest of her brood. Obviously, she had made the calculation that endangering herself in the middle of a paved road to save one chick with seven safely waiting for her was a bad plan. She began ushering them up a small embankment. I suspected the chick had stumbled and rolled onto its back and simply did not have the physical competence to right itself. I ran out and scooped it into my cap and took it to the roadside. Part of the reason it could not flip over is that it was so fat! It raced up the hill and caught up with its family.
Nic Korte, Grand Junction
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