In our neck of the woods... Dumb Dude

I'd like to introduce you to Dumb Dude. Dumb Dude is an eastern wild turkey. Specifically, a tom (a mature male). Here is Dumb Dude in all his glory, strutting for the ladies. Impressive, don't you think?

Dumb Dude likes to hang around our property because this is apparently a good place to hook up with mates. Such as the hen in the second photo, which happens to be the hen he was strutting for when I took these photos.

There's a bit of a story behind Dumb Dude's unusual name. You see, this tom turkey is obsessed with my truck. Well, what he is actually obsessed with is his own reflection in the side of my truck. I don't mean he's slightly curious... he is obsessed. He will spend hours at a time standing in our gravel parking area and pecking at his reflection in the glossy black paint. I kid you not... hours. I can go out there and chase him off, but he'll come back within minutes.

Each time he pecks the truck, it leaves a slight mark on the paint, but I discovered these marks buff out easily, so I stopped worrying about it. Now there are hundreds of marks. Maybe thousands. And still, Dumb Dude enjoys this odd hobby of pecking at himself.

Well, the scientific explanation is that tom turkeys are naturally aggressive toward other toms in the spring when they tussle with each other (or their reflection) for the right to claim the hens. But seriously... hours at a time, pecking his own reflection?

Hence, Trish named this bird Dumb Dude.