Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

BEFORE...



As I have said in earlier posts, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year.

AFTER...



So maybe a little history and some background on turkeys would be fun. Turkeys are native to North America and can be found in the wild in many places in the USA.

Cool Facts

A native of North America, the turkey is one of only two domesticated birds originating in the New World. The Muscovy Duck is the other.

European explorers took Wild Turkeys to Europe from Mexico in the early 1500s. They were so successfully domesticated in Europe that English colonists brought them back with them when they settled on the Atlantic Coast. The domestic form has retained the white tail tip of the original Mexican subspecies, and that character can be used to distinguish wandering barnyard birds from wild turkeys which have chestnut-brown tail tips.

The male Wild Turkey provides no parental care. When the eggs hatch, the chicks follow the female. She feeds them for a few days, but they quickly learn to feed themselves. Several hens and their broods may join up into bands of more than 30 birds. Winter groups have been seen to exceed 200.

Attempts to use game farm turkeys for reintroduction programs failed. In the 1940s wild birds were caught and transported to new areas, where they quickly became established and flourished. Such transplantations have been responsible for the spread of the Wild Turkey to 49 states.

As I child, I never saw a wild turkey but in the past 15 years, have seen wild turkeys on may occasions, sometimes in flocks of 20-50 birds. One one occasion, when I was walking near my summer house in upstate New York, I was started by a young bird that was hiding under some shrubbery. The bird panicked and flew away but crashed into a neighbor's window. It broke the external storm glass but not the inside glass and got wedged between the 2. I had to spend some time dislodging the bird from its trap.

When walking in the woods, sometimes you will find an area where the leaves and other debris has been scratched away forming hundreds of bare ground circles. This is the result of a flock of turkeys foraging for food.

But even more interesting...

Wild turkeys are so pugnacious and proud that Ben Franklin once lobbied to name them America's national symbol. But their high-octane protective streak has made them the bane of dozens of neighborhoods. In the fall, flocks around Lexington, Concord, Bedford, and Carlisle can run to 40 and 50. In Central Massachusetts the numbers are closer to 200. And in the spring the males become so hot-tempered and quarrelsome they have been known to attack cars, joggers, and, yes, even little old ladies.