I am a wild turkey chick. I was born in June, and already my life has been full of adventures. While I was still in my eggshell, I could hear the soft clucking of my mother and I called back to her. That is when I knew it was my time to break out.
In my first peek through the crack of my shell, I saw much commotion, as my siblings were also breaking out of their shells. I am one of 10 chicks.
Our nest of twigs and leaves was on the ground. I understand my mother laid one egg a day for about 10 days and she started to incubate them only after the last egg was laid. This made it possible for all of us to hatch at the same time. For 28 days, my mother sat on the clutch of eggs. She was very secretive about where she was keeping the eggs warm and protected from predators.
When I was born, I was fully clothed with a soft down. Within a few hours, I was dry and ready to run. Because we are so far advanced in our development at birth, we are called precocial, a big word for a small fluffy ball of down ready to face the world. Some human children are called precocious because of their advanced development.
The first day after hatching, our mother started moving away from the nest, constantly clucking softly. We instinctively followed. We had been imprinted by her voice even before we had broken free from our shells. Learning her voice commands has been essential to our survival. Her cries of alarm sent us scurrying to find a hiding spot and remain motionless. Her soft clucking brought us out of hiding to follow her.
By the second day out of the nest, we were performing all the feeding and grooming behaviors of an adult turkey and we were learning to fend for ourselves. Just like our mother, we started to eat insects and tender plants and to take dust baths in soft dirt.
Sometimes, our mother's signal of alarm sends us into hiding. I recently saw my mother run across the field with a fox chasing her. I did not know she could run so fast. Just as the fox got close to her, my mother flapped her wings and flew almost straight up. The fox was now far way from us and we were safe. In a couple of weeks we will be able to fly, and then we can roost in trees at night away from all the dangers on the ground below.
We recently had a severe thunderstorm with lightning and pounding rain. That is when we all found shelter under our mother's wings.
We were also photographed for the Insider, and I am now a precocious wild turkey chick celebrity.
