Wild turkeys doing what they do best this season: traveling, talking, and gathering together - just like people. Photo by Carol Markham

Thanksgiving is a day built around family, gratitude, and gathering close – and yes, often around a turkey dinner. But while we’re settling in with our relatives and favorite dishes, our local wild turkeys are out in the woods doing something remarkably similar: spending the season in tight-knit family groups, reconnecting, squabbling, calling to each other, and moving through the forest as one.

Fall is the time when turkeys truly shine. After a summer of raising young and feasting on native grasses, grasshoppers, and even frogs, they begin forming large flocks or family groups that come together much like our own extended families that arrive for the holiday. Hen turkeys stay with their female offspring, and it’s common for several mother-daughter groups to merge. The result? Fifty or more birds traveling, feeding, and roosting together. Picture trying to seat that many relatives at your dining room table!

Male turkeys do something similar but form their own “boys’ club.” Young males or jakes band together in looser, energetic groups, while mature gobblers stick with birds their own age. These brotherhoods roam different corners of the woods than the hens and young birds, and the two sides don’t mingle much in the fall. It’s a bit like the adults chatting in one room while teenagers and cousins get to sit at the “kids” table.

Within each flock, turkeys spend the day calling softly to one another – constant low murmurs that act like a running roll call. Feed a little, call a little, feed a little more. If you’ve ever been on a hike and heard faint yelps or soft whistles drifting through the trees, you might have walked right past a turkey family keeping tabs on its members.

And just like any big family gathering, disagreements happen. Establishing who sits at the top of the pecking order is a serious business, and both male and female turkeys engage in brief squabbles, chest bumps, and dominance displays. Think of it as the turkey version of deciding who carves the turkey or who gets the last roll, except with more feathers involved. These social battles actually matter; they determine breeding rank come spring.

Turkeys are creatures of habit in fall, often traveling the same routes daily as they search for food. Acorns and other nuts are the big draw this time of year, and you can often hear the scratch-scratch-scratch of their feet turning over leaves long before you hear their voices. These scratched-up patches on the forest floor are one of the best clues that a turkey family recently passed through.

At night, turkeys head to large trees to roost, safe from predators and high enough to keep the flock together. Dawn brings its own kind of comedy: a chorus of wingbeats, swoops, and not-always-graceful descents as 10- or 20-pound birds launch themselves into the morning.

If you live near woods with acorns, big trees, or old fields sprinkled with leftover corn, chances are you share your neighborhood with a turkey family or two. Watching them move, nearly silent one moment, then erupting with calls the next, is one of the hidden joys of the season.

So, as you gather at your table this Thanksgiving, surrounded by family, conversation, and the rituals that bind us together, remember that out in the forest, the turkey families are doing much the same. They’re reconnecting, navigating group dynamics, searching for good food, and sticking close to the ones that matter most.

Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy is a not-for-profit organization with a mission to preserve and enhance the quality, scenic beauty, and ecological health of the Chautauqua region’s lands and waters for our community. For more information, visit chautauquawatershed.org and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.