By John Johnston
The Cincinnati Enquirer

After I spent a chilly November morning wandering Miami Whitewater Forest in an unsuccessful search for wild turkeys, several readers apparently felt sorry for me.

Some invited me to see the wild turkeys that strut around their homes. Others e-mailed photos they'd shot of the birds.

The original article noted that wild turkeys are a wildlife management success story.

The birds had disappeared entirely from Ohio by 1904. But thanks to repopulation programs, they're back, even in urban counties such as Hamilton

Although I didn't find any - even with the help of Carol Mundy, Hamilton County Park District naturalist coordinator - readers let me know wild turkeys are out there.

"We read your article about the `elusive' wild turkey with interest, as we watched 25 of these elusive birds feed in our yard," Sharon Kidd of New Richmond said in an e-mail.

She sent pictures of a curious wild turkey peeking into her basement window and of a flock in her yard.

"We live in Indiana and have 10-17 turkeys in our yard a few times a week," wrote Lynn Janson of Bright. "Sometimes in the early morning one or two will sit on the ground and `cluck' at the others roosting in the trees to get them up for the day, and out they fly to the lake. It is an awesome sight of nature."

Jason Rathbone, who lives in the Miami Heights area of Miami Township near Mitchell Memorial Forest, said he's seen wild turkeys on his street two or three times since last December. And Dick Manteuffel, who lives in Clermont County's Pierce Township, said, "I counted a flock of 76 in my back yard last year."

But wild turkeys aren't confined to outlying areas.

"Here in Hyde Park, we have been hosts to a pair of birds for about two years," wrote Stewart Lewis. "They are something to see."

And one of these days, probably, I will.

E-mail jjohnston@enquirer.com