The
flocks ranged up to 2 dozen but often 1 would show
up. They carefully placed each step and were plainly
aware that we 
offered no harm.
Yet they were completely spooked and vanished when
the hunters showed up. I never figured this out
because they are not supposed to be that sharp. They
also talked to us. We'd gobble and they'd gobble
back-even from the car. They'd block the road
fearlessly while they strutted proudly. We'd wait for
them to regally amble off the road to allow us to
pass. In the garden they were well mannered and did
little damage to the seedlings preferring to hunt for
bugs and Miner's Lettuce.
In
the picture below the "3 brothers" are just
on the other side of the fence looking towards Gilroy
of Garlic fame. I just liked how the sun backlit
their tails and the grasses.
These are some of
the most beautiful wild birds in America. Seeing the
sun bouncing metallic colors off various sections of
their plumage is just dazzling sometimes. These
photos in no way do justice to the metallic colors.
Photographs generally only show various brown shades
and maybe a glimmer of deep metallic red. But all the
greens, blues, amber-yellows, and such are missed.
The heads turn electric blue while their wattles are
brilliant scarlet. The display is awesome. 
And unlike
peacocks they are not noisy except for their
occasional gobbling call which is much easier to live
with than a peacocks yelling "HeeAALLPPP!"
a bunch of times at 3 to 5 am and then throughout the
day for months. Mary and I are thinking about having
a wild turkey or two in our future gardens because of
their many desirable traits. Tame ones like to be
handled too and supposedly make good watchdogs. And
if they don't work out....there's always
Thanksgiving!
The turkeys among all the various wildlife stand out as our most looked forward to visitors. I read somewhere that the word Turkey came from a Native American word for "strength". It probably was mispronounced by the early explorers, probably the French. They still can't talk right...Turkeys come in early spring about February and visit daily until the onset of the dry season in April.