Glacier Park Chat
I often drive the back roads back to Whitefish from Kalispell. This area is a mix of small farms and woodlands....the Whitefish River winding through it all. This makes for ideal habitat not only turkeys, but every other critter found in NW Montana
If you watch closely, you'll see how wary the hens are.The tall grass could hide predators like foxes and coyotes. Then there is the everpresent threat from the sky in the form of redtails and other hawks. These turkey chicks being so small at this time of year are going to have a hard way to go come fall/winter.
These turkeys were going after the grasshoppers here...although turkeys will eat virtually anything. Hoppers are pretty high on the food value scale so turkeys eat them whenever they can. You'll see the hens occasionally wheel around to nail a hopper. Turkeys have exceptionally good eyesight and they are lightening fast with that beak. They rarely miss nailing a hopper who's a bit slow on the "hop".
pocketlint
About 1 minute in if you turn up volume, you can hear the chicks "peeping".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTkwVM-sGg0
