The story of Mr. Alec (short for Alectura) Turk
ByDereka Ogden
The brush turkey had been building a mound in the next door neighbours’ garden. They didn’t mind because they aren’t gardeners, and theirs looks OK with just trees and shrubs. He had a big mound built, and then things started to happen.
I thought I had the whole afternoon off one Friday, but the battle with Mr. Turk, the bush turkey from next door, began, and I had to rake up the mulch that he had appropriated from the garden twice.
The battle resumed on Saturday with Mr. Turk when I arrived back from the markets. He thinks he hasn’t enough on his mound, and my mulch would do nicely, but he can’t have it, my garden needs it. I raked it back twice, then I was given a small roll of chicken wire and I put it along the front, and along the side, I put 2 plastic boxes, and he gave up for the day. The whole day, we had rain and more rain, so Mr. Turk was not working then. He gave himself the afternoon off.
However he was back the next day, and I had to rake the mulch back and put a table on its side in the garden, and an old fan, and that kept Alec, the smarty, out for a while.
Monday was day four of the war, and no one was looking. I was doing GeckoEd teaching at the Estuary. He dragged out mulch and when I arrived home, I dragged it back. By the afternoon, I decided that I would buy some more wire netting and some stakes to keep it in place, also a bag of mulch for Mr. Turk. I was away a long time, and when I did drive in I saw that there was no mulch on the garden, but it was next door on the driveway on its way to the mound. It was very dark by this time, so I just swept the mulch back.
Meanwhile, he had been visited by various ladies, and he had had a merry time with them. It seems they love his black and red garb and his beautiful yellow tie. One of his favourite things is to jump up onto my roof to show himself around, making a loud noise walking around. Then down he comes and mutters to himself in a deep voice “M M M M” as you would do with your mouth closed. He sounds very pleased with himself.
Next morning was my big teaching day. Firstly we had the kids fromCoomeraAnglicanCollegeplaying the possum and cats game. Then we had them doing the actions to a song about recycling that Lynne had recorded. Next power points – one about GeckoEd and one about the dangers of plastic bags. They were doing community service and part of it was picking up litter. Then it was off to the mangroves and a reinforcement power point. After lunch we did water quality testing and litter pickup.
Then I arrived home and Mr. Turk had my stuff practically on his mound, so that’s when I gave him his packet of mulch and struggled to put up a very temporary and ugly fence, grrrr. He didn’t venture into the garden again, but I went to art that morning and I was dreading what I’d see when I got back. I still had the table, fan, plastic boxes and Masonite in the garden.
On Wednesday I only did a segment on the impact of tourism on the environment after the students had had lunch at Tarrabora. One educator told them all about the proposed 1979 development of the area. In the morning I had gone with them to where they’d be weeding and collecting rubbish, so that I could tell another educator, where to meet up with everyone so he could do the bird watching part of the excursion. Mr. Turk apparently spent the day with his ladies.
The next day was Thursday and he decided to hunt elsewhere for the day and spent the entire day raking up fallen vegetation he could find from the side of the house where his mound is. It was another busy day for him, but great for me as he didn’t come anywhere near my garden, just the usually stomping around on the roof.
The other day he was on another neighbour’s roof showing the ladies how beautiful he was, when he overbalanced and with a squawk, fell off. At other times, when a lady came to visit, he chased her around and around the house, what fun!
I waited for his next foray into my garden, so I haven’t had to use the other roll of wire yet. I will see if he finds some other way to make off with my mulch.
Last Saturday I saw Mr.Turk streaking up the road chasing 2 ladies in black and red. When they went in different directions, Mr. Turk returned to his mound. Later, one of the ladies came to visit him and she started digging a hole in the mound with Mr. Turk checking the temperature all the time with his beak. Eventually she laid an egg, then toddled off.
Mr. Turk has not been in my garden since I put the second lot of chicken wire around.
