Turkeys Snore!

Our new turkeys have been quite entertaining. I am so glad Mark gave them to us. (And it is lots easier to have them since they came here full grown!) They have chosen a very smart site-the trees just outside my bedroom window-as their roosting spot for the nights. Two of them roost in the mulberry tree and one in the elm tree. It is a good spot for them: reasonably safe from both ground and aerial predators. Smart birds, these turkeys are. I was awakened last night by the sounds of owls. Owls are not a good thing here. (You may remember the episode with the owl in the chicken house.) They eat rodents and snakes which is good. But they also eat chickens, ducks, goslings, and cats which is NOT good. I didn't think they would be able to carry off one of the turkeys, but I never cease to be amazed by what happens at Prairie House. I got out of bed to listen more closely and make a mental note of where all our creatures were for the night. Only Golden Boy and Chester were unaccounted for and hopefully hunkered down someplace warm and comfy as the snow was covering the ground and still falling. The longer I listened, the more I began to wonder if it was a family of owls...or something else. These seemed to be owls with a nasal problem. The familiar hoot-hoot-hoot of the owl sounded more like hoot-wheeze-hoot-wheeze-hoot-wheeze. There was a chorus of hoot-wheezes, so either there was a whole family of owls who had smoked too much and now had emphysema or this sound was coming from something else. Hmmmm After listening at the window for some time, I don't think it was owls at all. I think our turkeys snore! Their choice of roosting sites might not be such a good one after all. Hope you had a Thanksgiving filled with truckloads of things to be thankful for. I'm thankful we only got three turkeys.