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Last weekend, Bill slammed the door of the house open and yelled, "Laurie! Come out here! NOW!" I rushed out the front door, rushed back in and through the house, snatching my camera up on the way, and went out the garage door in time to take this: 
Yes, a flock of foraging wild turkeys had just made its way around our house and was headed across the street. 
We counted 23 of them, and then these two came running at top turkey speed around from the front yard (we live on a corner) to catch up.
As you can see, we live in a housing development which wouldn't appear to be conducive to wildlife, although we often have the smell of skunk wafting in in the evenings (Bill had one in the garage once, stealing some catfood), and treefrogs can be surprising loud in the evenings. Bill has lived here for 20+ years, and he used to see the occasional coyote. Up until West Nile virus hit, we had large, loud flocks of yellow-billed magpies. It is rare to see one anymore. Apparently they've been replaced by turkeys.
A few minutes later they came back the other way, and even later, we saw them going past our house and around the block again - still with all 25 of them.
Why, you might ask, is all the landscaping green when we live in an arid state in the middle of a drought? I ask myself that all the time.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Wildlife? or Scenes from the garage
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4 comments:
What great pictures. I am amazed there are still wild turkeys.
The wild turkey is making a comeback nationwide mostly due to the efforts of hunters. Unfortunately, they didn't originally occur here in California. They may be wild, but they're introduced. These are apparently a hybrid of the Merriam's and the Rio Grande subspecies.
They obviously aren't stupid, either. Hunting isn't usually allowed in subdivisions. We'll have to see what happens after President Shoot-'em-up Palin gets in charge, though.
Lots of them 'round here in New York. At IBM's Somers (NY) office complex, one often finds them on the grounds.
We have lots of Canada Geese here in my neighborhood. Would you like some of them to go with the turkeys?
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