6.12.2008

A Lesson About Turkeys


This morning, while driving down our 2/3 mile driveway, a turkey slowly crossed over ahead of me.

We have seen turkeys on and off since we moved back into the woods. During that time, I have learned from my husband (who grew up in this area) that everything I thought I knew about turkeys is wrong.

I thought turkeys all looked similar to the traditional Thanksgiving mascot - tail feathers with the red "beard", etc.

Wrong.

Apparently, those are characteristics of MALE turkeys. The females just look like big dark colored birds. The feather thing? They only do that when they are strutting. Who knew?

People express interest in hunting on our property when they find out we have turkeys. Personally, I am not a big fan of hunting. I know too many people that just do it for fun. That, and I'm a tree hugger at heart. I am trying to think up names for all our turkeys. If I name them, and proclaim them as my pets, maybe that will discourage hunting them.

BTW, the picture above is one I found online of a female turkey (and no, it didn't have credit to the photographer), so that you can kind of see what I am talking about. The ones we have look even less like turkeys (or what I think of as turkeys). They are pretty difficult to photograph. They refuse to stand in one spot long enough for me to go grab my wide-angle lens. However, if I ever do get a good picture, I will replace the one above.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

It must be nice to have and live on property that far from civilization that you have turkeys.

Anonymous said...

Is it a rumor that Ben Franklin wanted to make the turkey the national bird? Maybe. But he did write a book called Fart Proudly.