Wednesday, February 29

Turkeys galore

Yesterday we went out to the big world to pick up our mail. Since it’s about a two-hour round trip, we only get to the post office once or twice a week. We have a PO drawer, not a PO box. The drawer is big. Once last summer I was leaving the post office with a huge pile of mail in my arms. As I got to the door, a man approached from outside and opened it for me. He gawked at the enormous amount of stuff I had, so I said to him, “Don’t worry. I left some for you.”

As we returned home, we saw a herd (bunch? batch? wad? gaggle? heap?) flock of what must have been a hundred wild turkeys! They were spread out in a loosely-structured line that must have been a couple of hundred feet long. Some of the toms were in full display, with their tails forming a big fan and the rest of the feathers all over their bodies standing on end. I wonder what that feels like? Do they get goose bumps? Turkey bumps? I’ll have to look that up.


Cell phone pic by Tom Hurley

4 comments:

Susan Hurley-Luke said...

Oh wow wild turkeys. They reminded me of the domestic turkey farm that used to exist outside Oakhurst. I will always remember visiting that place with its pens of crowded, noisy, ogling turkeys...not like wild turkeys at all.

I wonder why I thought of that? The mind is a strange thing.

Tom Hurley said...

The main difference between these wild birds and the domesticated meals-on-three-toed feet is body mass. The wild ones can easily burst into flight, and are very graceful fliers, often soaring effortlessly in what seems to be just a lot of fun. The ones you saw in pens were discouraged from such effort, since it would reduce their weight, thus value to the farmer. (Rancher? Grower? Heartless exploiter?)

Agneta and David said...

Congratulations on managing to place the text NEXT to the picture....... quite a talented man, writer, author, photographer and BLOGGER you are :-)

Tom Hurley said...

Thanks. It's a slow process sometimes.