| Tilley is the name we gave to an Eastern Wild Turkey who, at the age of approximately two month, decided to spend the night in our barn. Apparently he liked the accommodations because we saw him every day for the rest of his life. Unfortunately that wasn't very long. It was only about seven months later that he fell victim to an ambush by some other wild creature. During his short time with us Tilley gave us countless hours of enjoyment and entertainment he also taught us a lot about Wild Turkeys.
Now don't confuse Tilley with domestic turkey's - those hybrid, distant cousins, bred only for food - the ones that gave turkey a bad name. The 'stupid' stereotypy does NOT apply to wild turkeys. Some Native Americans even referred to them as the Southern Eagle or Ground Eagle. They are a very intelligent and vastly interesting bird, they were in the running for our national bird after all.
Tilley was well fed - he ate right along side our barn cats. At first he was a little leery of doing this (the cats were a little bigger than he was) but it didn't seem to brother the cats so he drove right in. I bet those cats were glad they were so nice to him because it wasn't very long before he was a LOT bigger then them.
Tilley's favorite place to roost was on the rafters in the barn. His second favorite spot was on the electric wires and his favorite spot on them was right in the middle of the road. Our neighbors got a big kick out of seeing this large bird on those wires late at night. I always told them to make sure they had their moon roofs closed! I heard Tilley did hit his mark one night- right on the front windshield of a pickup - and you thought pigeons made a big mess! I don't know why but when the weather was real nasty (driving rain, wind or snow storm) Tilly would be out on the wire swaying in the wind.
Tilley became very protective of us. He always stood between us and our human visitors and wouldn't let anyone get very close to us. He would stand by our visitors car all the time they were in the our house and when they left he would chase them down the rode.
We have put together a little slide show 'Tilley's Show'. The show will start shortly after you click on the button below. Tilley's Show is automated and continuously looping so just click once and sit back and enjoy. When you have seen it all click the back button.
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