Upon closer look, I saw the rest of the flock (for the record, a bunch of domesticated turkeys is known as a rafter or gang) could be spied roosting in the same tree, about fifty or sixty feet above the ground:
As God is my witness, I know turkeys can fly:
Of course, these are the lean, muscular wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo)... to be fair to the WKRP writers, the overfed, overbred domesticated turkeys would probably plummet to the earth unlike their wild forebears.
In the interest of full disclosure, I failed to photograph the other bird which immediately caught my eye when I arrived, the first bald eagle I've seen this season... I did get to see it take wing and fly off over the adjacent tributary of the Hudson.
Legend has it that the turkey was in the running to be our national bird, alongside the bald eagle. Just imagine, if things had gone otherwise, we might be getting e-mailed pictures of crying turkeys from our wingnut acquaintances.
2 comments:
A gang (that's amazing) of about forty turkeys live in the woods right below my house. I didn't know people thought they couldn't fly! They can definitely fly, but not very well or for very long. Also they are extremely stupid and they neck-fight constantly.
Just imagine, if things had gone otherwise, we might be getting e-mailed pictures of crying turkeys from our wingnut acquaintances.
A wingnut can turn anything into a maudlin expression of whatever the opposite of self-awareness is.
That would be perfect.
There were wild turkeys on Jekyll Island that were approachable (so many animals that live next to golf courses are..."hey look, it's just another silly foursome of humans").
They are also on Cacapon Mountain in W.V., but damned tricky to get a pic of.
~
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