Friday, February 26, 2010

Rafter

We have a rafter of wild turkeys around here. At times their gang is as large as 30+. Other times it seems to be just the core group of around 10 with 6 or 7 hens and 3 or 4 gobblers.

Check out how long this one's beard is!! If you aren't familiar... the beard is the collection of hairy looking feathers that are hanging from the front of the body. (This picture is a bit fuzzy since this turkey was RUNNING away from the camera... Pops looks really mean and intimidating with a Nikon in front of his face, you know!)
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Have you ever seen a turkey fly? I would love to get some great pictures of them flying - since it is SUCH a strange thing to see. They seem so big and awkward that it doesn't seem like they should be able to fly. But, fly they do - right off of the mountain top's trees to the trees below where they perch and call. (I hate to call it "sing their song" as the sound is more like barking dogs than the melodic tune of spring's robin red breast!)

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Aren't the colors of the feathers beautiful? Did you know that Benjamin Franklin wanted our National bird to be the wild turkey instead of the eagle? Apparently, he felt that the wild turkey was stately or majestic or something and thought that it would make a fine bird to symbolize our country.

Can I just say that I am glad that he worked on electricity and other things instead of pushing for the wild turkey! Can you imagine?! The turkey on our money... the symbol of America... well, maybe right now there are a lot of "turkeys" in Washington D.C. and he saw them coming.

3 comments:

  1. I just heard more about ol Ben wanting the turkey. Apparently he was really against the eagle, because eagles are known to steal from other birds and he didn't want the gov't to be symbolized by a thief! Funny, I wonder if perhaps the eagle is a fitting symbol for our gov't now!

    Also, did I ever tell you about the wild turkeys we had around our place when I grew up on the ranch? Oh it was crazy! They would fly up into the tree around our swimming pool and call out to each other. It was so creepy to be out there swimming with these turkey's hovering over you and calling out, lol.

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  2. "Turkey excrement" seems a more fitting title for the Washington D.C. folk...
    GREAT PICS! (oh, and thanks for the credit on the fuzzy one.)
    -POPS

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  3. Yea - Yea... credit for the turkey photos goes to Pops - even the shiny feather one with a clear in focus bird and nice bokeh behind in the foliage. Nice job on that! Did you MEAN to take a clear bird photo for me to crop out, or was that bird just not scared and running away!?!! Love you and your birds.

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Thanks for jumping in and leaving your thoughts!!

I sure like to know who enjoys playing around the treehouse!