Big Bird

[cjsmith]

I just saw a wild turkey stroll across my parents' back yard.

Those things are big.

Comments

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

Turkeys!!! (http://flickr.com/photos/klwalton/sets/500777/)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh wow! Nice shots!

This one here was a girl turkey, so her colors were mostly low-contrast browns and she had no red wattle. She also wasn't feeling anxious, so her tail and her body feathers were all flat. It was very clear she was a turkey though. Shaped right, and significantly bigger than a chicken.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

With all the rain out there lately, I'm surprised it wasn't trying to swim across the yard. :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Hee! My parents aren't in the serious flood zones. There was a bit to the south of them and a goodly bit in New Hampshire as well (NH lost a small town).

There are wild turkeys near some of the hiking trails I used to frequent, so I'm used to the size of 'em, but I truly didn't expect to see one in close-to-Rt.128-suburbia!

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're not in the floody mess. Our friends up in Ipswich are having no fun getting around with 3 of the town's bridges closed.
(http://www.townonline.com/ipswich/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=512975)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yep, and they're not the only ones. In California we flood more often, with less damage any individual time. We get a wet winter, we hear a hill fell down and took some billionaire's house, and we shake our heads, 'cause we knew when construction began that it would happen eventually. But here... here flooding is a very unusual thing, at least flooding of this magnitude.

[vito-excalibur.livejournal.com]

Aren't they great?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yes, that was nifty. I didn't at all expect it in this little suburban area.

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

Oh wow...that is impressive.

We occasionally get a roadrunner around our house, but it's just the one, and he (or she) isn't very photogenic. Actually, I've seen more roadrunners in the area this past couple of years than in the previous two decades, so that's a good thing!

BEEP! BEEP!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I've ever seen a roadrunner. (Well, maybe I have seen one but didn't know what it was.) BEEPBEEP!

[aleeceh.livejournal.com]

I saw some in Death Valley. They were pretty cool!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Were they saying BEEPBEEP? ;-)

[aleeceh.livejournal.com]

Isn't that supposed to be "MEEP! MEEP!"? ;-)

I noted at the time that, no, I didn't think the cartoon Road Runner's vocalizations were in any way modeled after his real-life cousins, but the way he moves is pretty much dead on—including the blur of leg motion!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Blur of leg motion! Oh, now I really want to see one!

[aleeceh.livejournal.com]

They're very common in the Sacramento area. I've seen a flock of them strolling around pecking in the lawn of a business park, and we very nearly hit one on one of our first driving tours with the local Porsche Club. We use the FRS (e.g. Motorola Talkabout) radios to communicate on tours, but they can be hard to hear over road noise & the stereo, and they can be hard to understand. We thought we heard the word "turkey" amid some otherwise unintelligible banter among other cars in the group. No sooner had we thought, "Why are these people calling each other names?!" than we passed an actual turkey on the side of the road. A bit late, we realized the radio call had not been a case of verbal abuse, but rather a road hazard warning, as they would have called out for bicycles on the shoulder or oncoming trucks. Granted my car is low to the ground and I'm not tall, but I think the turkey and I were eye-to-eye.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

*chuckle* Definitely good to have warning so as not to hit him!

[airporter.livejournal.com]

Cool. All we get are Racoons and Skunks.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

That's mostly all we get too ("we" == my parents' place outside of Boston). The turkey really surprised me.

[shadopanther.livejournal.com]

I've seen wild turkeys in the San Jose foothills. My mother who lives near the foothills once had a ring necked phesant wander lost into her front yard. (We believe it was wild.) She's also had an opossum try to take up residence in her row-boat (which is stored in the yard). (We discouraged the opossum. by blocking the entry into the boat by placing a board over the opening in the boat cover.)

Here, I've just seen small birds, squirrels, and a racoon.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

We used to have possums in our woodpile up in Palo Alto, and a raccoon learned how to use our cat door (what a nightmare!), but before this the only place I've seen wild turkeys has been out on the hiking trails in the Bay Area.

[mere-bystander.livejournal.com]

Hello! I saw your comment on Hitchhiker's post and your screen-name caught my attention. I'm a C. J. Smith, too! (in real life...)
I've never seen a wild turkey in the wild! Cool!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Hi C.J.! :-) Do you go by "CJ" as a nickname, too? That's what my parents used to call me when they weren't mad at me. If they were ticked it was "Carol..." and if I was REALLY in for it they'd call "Carol Jean".

[mere-bystander.livejournal.com]

No, I don't... I always tried to obtain the nickname, but it never stuck! I was always Cathy - or Cathryn Jane if I was in trouble.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Well, I'll call you CJ if you like!

[mere-bystander.livejournal.com]

Ok! That'll work! :D