Wild Turkeys in Prescott

I had never witnessed a wild turkey in Prescott until last summer while I was on a run.  It was a first-time encounter, and one I couldn't repeat when I drove back to the same spot with my camera two hours later.  Before that, the closest I'd gotten to the possibility of seeing any of the birds was when I ran into two hunters with bows and arrows and who were on the lookout for turkeys on Spruce Mountain ten miles away.  However this year it's a completely different story with numerous turkey sightings not only in my neighborhood but in my own yard. 

It was while running along Javelina Trail above nearby Camp Emmanuel Pines that I saw my first flock this year.  I counted at least three adults and around a dozen juveniles.  A couple of weeks later I encountered a similarly-sized flock two miles away and much lower on the trail.  After recounting the experience to a neighbor a little while later, she soon observed a completely different flock on her street a few blocks away.  Later that week I was able to count four adults and at least sixteen juveniles off of Pine Lakes Drive, not far from Willow Creek near where I had seen turkeys for the first time the year before.  It was quickly becoming Prescott's Summer of Turkeys!

I shouldn't actually be surprised to see wild turkeys in Arizona.  In fact I see them every time I visit Madera Canyon in the Santa Rita Mountains south of Tucson.  A subspecies of the bird known as a Gould's roams throughout that area.  However these turkeys were extirpated from this range early in the twentieth century and successfully reestablished by the late 1990's. 

Another subspecies, the Merriam's, has continuously inhabited the pine forests of northern Arizona for millennia.  These are the wild turkeys that I've seen on my runs in Prescott and that my deck cam recorded investigating my flower box two weeks ago.  In the ensuing days a flock passed through several time, usually in the morning, but at least once during early evening.   I heard the "whip, whip" of the adults and the short whistles of the juveniles before I spotted them foraging throughout the landscape that the monsoon rains had started greening up.  While not the largest birds in the wilds of Arizona, they may be the largest that can't fly to the dizzying heights of bigger birds like condors, ravens, vultures, and eagles.  Yet wild turkeys do in fact fly the short distances needed to reach my deck or to roost in trees for safety at night.  

Another interesting fact about the wild turkey is that it is the largest game bird in North America.  More than a thousand are hunted legally in Arizona yearly out of a total resident population estimated at over twenty thousand.  Fall hunting season hasn't arrived, so my neighborhood turkeys can roam into the nearby National Forest with only coyotes, bobcats, and mountain lions to fear.  Of course exceptionally hot and dry conditions throughout their regular habitat may keep them interested in gardens and yards like my own for a while longer.

Adult wild turkey at the end of my Prescott driveway.

Wild turkeys at the end of my driveway in Prescott.

Adult wild turkey in my Prescott yard.

Juvenile wild turkeys in my Prescott yard.