Damn Turkey!

Lately, turkeys are coming to visit our tea fields every day.  Not just visiting our farm, but I see them all the time, almost it appears that they decided to permanently squatting on our farm.

We recently put down fall / winter season cover crop after all the laborious maintenance, and as soon as the cover crops germinated, something is chowing on them.  

For a long time, I thought it was some insect pests or cutworm.  Over time we selected resilient cover crops and even ones that birds don't care so much.  Also, they must establish well, and once established they recover easily and easy to manage.

Yes, we had it for the last few seasons, but somewhere along their path, they seem to have changed their diet and preference for foraging and behavior pattern.  or maybe foods are scarce with economic recession and all.  Perhaps they are just pulling them out to get to my nerves.

Whatever the reason is, it is really working to affect my mental calmness so I tried various things.  Throw rocks, chase them down the hill, daily patrol, they seem to modify their daily activities so that they just go hide for a while and come back and continue their activities.  

My neighbor came one time with a rifle and told me, "they are getting to my garden too.  Go take this rifle and shoot them."  It is a good opportunity to resolve the trouble, but I want no wasteful kill.

Perhaps we'll have an early thanksgiving party.  

I had my fall beans and peas planted by the house, protected in a cage, and finally they crossed the line.  I pretend to be calm on the surface, but screamed in my head, "I'll kill you damn birds, you'll be in a soup by the end of the day".

At the same time, calm and observant side of me tells me, "what would natural farming solution be?"  Even though intense madness and frustration, I have to ask myself, what's the natural farming solution?

I went down to observe the pattern of their foraging.  There is definite pattern of their travel and foraging behavior, and what do they actually eat from the seed mix that I use?

One most obvious thing was that they did not go in where weeds were tall on both side of the rows of cover crops.  That's interesting.  Personally, I get the same kind of feeling.  When there is tall weeds growing, I would rather go around.  Perhaps, weeds are acting as barrier.  Perhaps it's a visual obstacles that discourage them to enter certain part of the field.

I remember the story of crows in Japan.  Farmers suffered so much from crow damage and they came up with physical protection like putting a strong net over their crop, and metal sheet.  All these protect them physically, but if they are not placed correctly, crows go around to get the tomatoes or peck through the net to get their fruits, or simply pull off the protective cover.

 I had a small garden in Japan once and crows are known thief in vegetable gardens.  Always hanging out up above.  As soon as people leave, they come down to get what they want.  They got all the time in the world to do what they do.  Highest priority in their life is to get foods and go rest.

One farmer's observation gave me a big clue. He didn't call himself a natural farmer, but patiently and carefully observing crows' behavior revealed much things.  "Crows don't like to get into bushes or weedy patches where they cannot see their surroundings.  This is exactly opposite of how people want to maintain their farm and garden.  Tall weeds makes our work more tedious and hard to find some crops.  We are also at risk of getting snake bite, ticks, even some large animals, but this is exactly what the birds didn't like either.

Going back to turkey story, I noticed from a little weed patch that blocks the entry of these birds into now prolific cover crop germinants.  This is only my observation and the clue should be giving me how to improve the situation.