I live in a small Ozark town. To my surprise the other day I found myself watching wild turkeys at the outskirts of town.
A creek goes through parts of town. The town limit toward my home is a bridge crossing this creek. The creek area is still thick woods and is kept this way due to flooding.
Wild turkeys do live along this creek. I’d seen them out toward ShawneeMac Conservation Area. They go across the road into the pastures along there.

Just inside the town limit there was a small pasture. A pony lived there for a time. Across the road are some fields cut and round baled every year.
Late one afternoon as I drove home from town, I noticed a flock of wild turkeys in the small pasture. Watching wild turkeys in the fields around home I learned to do fast counts and estimated a dozen birds.
It was late. I needed to get home to let the herd in for the night. I didn’t stop.
The next time I came home I looked in the field. There were no turkeys. It must have been a fluke. Or the neighborhood dogs had made the turkeys decide to go back to their usual pastures.

After another long day in town with a list of errands much longer than the time available, I headed home. Winter days are frustrating as they get dark so early and the goats need to come in before dark.
I rolled down the hill toward the Spring Creek Bridge. There was the flock of turkeys. This time I stopped to take a couple of pictures. Watching wild turkeys is fine. Having pictures to savor later is better.

This was the dozen birds. I turned toward my truck. Across the road in the other fields was another dozen or more.
These are definitely town birds. Watching wild turkeys out my way takes stealth as they take off as soon as they spot you. These town birds looked me over and went back to eating.
Wild turkeys are one of the topics in “Exploring the Ozark Hills“.