Wild Turkey | The Music of Nature

In the spring of 2000, I embarked on a quest to record dawn choruses and other nature soundscapes, having in mind that I would produce a series of relaxing and meditative CDs (which I am finally going to pull off, over ten years later!). My trip lasted nearly two months and was fraught with horrible weather. Wherever I went there was either high wind or rain (or both). I spent weeks trying to outrun bad weather systems, but to no avail. Many times, I would drive all day to get out of one storm only to have a new one overtake me from a different direction. I am amazed that I got anything of value during that trip.

One lucky spot was Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Oklahoma. Containing a variety of habitats (eastern deciduous forest, mixed grass prairie, lakes and ponds, and steep rocky slopes), the refuge has always yielded good recordings (at least when jets from nearby Fort Sill aren’t flying overhead). The following is a good example. It is one my favorite Wild Turkey recordings, with two males gobbling intermittently from oak woods next to a small creek. Chuck-will’s-widows sing prominently throughout. Listen also for the songs of two Tufted Titmice:

Wild Turkeys call intermittently next to a small brook while Chuck-will’s-widows sing in the background. 6am, 5 May 2000, Wichita Mountains NWR near Lawton, OK. Recorded by Lang Elliott.

I have other turkey recordings where there are more individuals involved and where the gobbles are louder and closer. This one is more laid back, which is why I like it so much. I didn’t know the turkeys were there. I arrived at the break of dawn, heard the chuck-wills and quickly set my soundscape mike near the stream. Minutes later, the turkeys chimed-in, which was a welcome surprise!

Let me know if you like it!

It was 5AM. Other than the last quarter moon there was no light in the woods behind my house. As it was a Sunday morning, there was hope that nearby route 9 would be quieter than usual. A flock of 18-20 wild turkeys have been visiting the woods here in the last few weeks. They are so shy that I can’t even be inside the blind that I have had set up in these woods for nearly 3 years. Somehow, they know that I am in there. As soon as they finish running up the hill to the area were the spilled seed from the bird feeders can be found, they sense that I am there and run off. So, in order to record some of the sounds from this flock I set up the SASS microphones and the digital recorder in the dark of pre-dawn. Setting an arbitrary recording level and hoping that nothing would be louder than this setting is something of an art and just plain dumb luck.

After returning to the house and examining the recordings I was astonished that there were no gobbles from displaying male turkeys. There was however, something amazing and like nothing that I have ever heard before. Apparently, there were at least two hens that were not having a good morning. These “two” hens began clucking and smacking one another with their wings — I think. From the time stamp on the recording this would have transpired around 7:30AM. A male Eastern Phoebe is flying around in the background doing some interesting calls. Some are flight song segments and others are more typical song elements. He, too, sounds rather upset.

Early in the week this large male “Tom” was displaying for several hens. I was recording using a remote recording technique. Here the mics were outside and a cable was strung into my house, a great blind, to the recorder where I could easily monitor the recording session and make recording level adjustments as needed. Listening carefully to this recording you might be able to hear the low frequency sounds that the Tom’s wings make while he is gobbling. There is also a low pitched sound after the first and last gobbles that seems to be coming from the Tom. I can only speculate that this must be some low volume, low pitched sound that he is producing for the hens. Or, perhaps this is associated with inflating his air sacs for the next gobble.

He certainly looks regal with his blue head and dark iridescent plumage. He droops his wings, the tips just touching the ground, as if to cover his legs. He lifts the feathers on his body to puff himself up looking much bigger than when he is at rest. He also fans that magnificent tail. In younger males the center tail feathers are longer than the rest of the tail. They really stand out in the crowd. The older, breeding aged, Tom’s tails are even at the tips.

Turkey Haunt

Wild Turkey Hen Fight