Turkeys on Willow Street!

I was driving on Willow Street a couple days ago and saw two female turkeys standing by a tree. No, this isn't a joke. I thought I was losing my mind, but they were real, honest-to-goodness turkeys. I pulled over to the side of the street and gawked for a moment at those two huge birds standing there as though they didn't have a care in the world. Is it turkey season? They probably figured they were safer in town than in the country.

They cross the highway quite often where I live. I know it's dumb, but I had no idea wild turkeys could fly like they do. I had this Les Nessman image of turkeys in my head for the longest time.

Wildlife showing up in town isn't as uncommon as ya might think. Deer , turkeys, pheasants, raccoons, possums and skunks show up more often than you imagine. A year or so back, Ratzilla got some pics of pheasants crossing a street in town in the middle of the day.

Did it look like this? Not too far from the pond?

isn't that a guinea?

Yeah. They get out from the property with the pond. It's only about a block. Made me turn around and give them a second look.

One time I wish I had a camera was going into Colby. A deer crossed the highway in front of me and jumped a fence. What was really special was that the fence it jumped was right underneath a big John Deere sign. So there was like a mirror image of the sign directly below it in a real deer. A one in a million shot that I wished I coulda caught.

When I lived in L.A., I saw two-three deer in Beverly Hills one day as I was driving around......when gas prices were low, so you know this was Years ago.

How big are guineas? These were BIG. They were on Willow in that little park area between Skyline Drive and Skyline Court. If some guineas got out of the pond, that's probably what these were.

In the early days of the European colonisation of North America, the native Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) was confused with this species. This led to the English name of the American bird, since Turkey and Guinea were equally far-off and exotic places. The word meleagris, Greek for guineafowl, is also shared in the scientific names of the two species, although for the guineafowl it is the species name, whereas for the turkey, it is the name of the genus and (in an altered state) the family.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmeted_Guineafowl

Justoo wrote:

In the early days of the European colonisation of North America...

Very interesting, Justoo. Thanks!

jewelz wrote:

When I lived in L.A., I saw two-three deer in Beverly Hills one day as I was driving around......when gas prices were low, so you know this was Years ago.

Those were probably Ellie Mae's.

kasey.. Wild turkeys have fairly trim bodies and their feathers would be mostly dark brown. I suppose they stand a couple foot tall. I'll be damned if I understand why so many birds living in colder climates have no head protection. Buzzards and vultures I understand it's because they always have their heads stuck in carcasses. But why turkeys? Are they an ancient relative of buzzards?

Ratzilla wrote:

jewelz wrote:

When I lived in L.A., I saw two-three deer in Beverly Hills one day as I was driving around......when gas prices were low, so you know this was Years ago.

Those were probably Ellie Mae's.

kasey.. Wild turkeys have fairly trim bodies and their feathers would be mostly dark brown. I suppose they stand a couple foot tall. I'll be damned if I understand why so many birds living in colder climates have no head protection. Buzzards and vultures I understand it's because they always have their heads stuck in carcasses. But why turkeys? Are they an ancient relative of buzzards?

LOL Your funny...that was good!!

A couple of years ago I saw a coyote trotting down the sidewalk going south on the 2100 block of Walnut street. This was about 3:00 in the morning. Foxes have been seen regularly also along the railroad right of way that parallels 8th street. I would imagine that a fair share of the trash cans that get raided and knocked over in the middle of the night are visited by coyotes although the neighbor's dog usually gets the blame for it. I never thought about it, but maybe these lovely polycarts will be more difficult for coyotes, dogs, raccoons etc. to overturn and scatter the contents.

On west 6th ST. in Russell 8 years ago I seen a Fox and her pups running under a collvert. Then 20 years ago I seen a sliver Fox in Sayre O.K. I also seen Bears in Idaho 15 years ago. Just the kids ,me and a lot of bears.I have seen a lot of wild things in my 52 years

I saw alot of wild bares one night. It was at a purple passion party. Everyone got so drunk they started pulling off clothes. Oh wait.... You said "bears".

There's been mountain lion and black bear spotted in these parts before. The cats on the rivers in Ellis Co., and black bears up around Stockton and Kirwin. One early morning about 15 years ago a mountain lion ran across the highway by Prairie Acres. Both black bears and mountain lions are known to kill and eat us.

Remember that moose that wandered through a few years ago?

Justoo wrote:

Remember that moose that wandered through a few years ago?

I was there in September, too, Justoo.

suzyr wrote:

Justoo wrote:

Remember that moose that wandered through a few years ago?

I was there in September, too, Justoo.

Ya'll had a moose wander through HERE? Do tell!! Where did you see it??Ask Jessica about the moose in our meadow. The dogs ended up running after it into the forest, then the moose ran them right back out. Funny and quite the day!

I was talking about my boo-tay, I don't know what Justoo was referring to.