When I first moved into a rural home a few miles outside Helena three decades ago, there were no turkeys in the vicinity. But that’s all changed in the last few years as the turkeys have moved in big-time, colonizing the grassy hills and ponderosa pine forest around our house and beyond.
At first it was just a tom and a hen, then the next spring a half dozen chicks trailed behind them. Now there are many more. They wander up our driveway and hang out on our porch and the roof of our garage. The other day, as I walked through the yard, some two dozen surrounded me, chirping and thoroughly unbothered by any threat I might pose.
Then, suddenly, they all ran off. Wow, I thought, cool. A week later I saw three dozen cruising the hills together.
