I guess this turkey felt safe after Christmas, for yesterday morning it ventured into the yard of reader G. B. James, who has a security-cam video of the visit. His notes:
A turkey came to visit this morning. And I don’t refer to our governor.
(FWIW… the flag on the right is Uganda, in honor of our atheist friends who run the Kasese Humanist Primary School. A ray of non-believing help in a nation overrun with religious persecution of gays and atheists.)
GBJ was on the way to the grocery store, and I like the way he stops and watches the bird from his car. And this is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin—not a small town!
I am from also from Milwaukee and have regularly seen turkeys in my yard. Unfortunately for the turkeys though I also have foxes paying me a visit.
Professor CC posted video I captured of a mother fox with her kits a few years back. There’s a surprising amount of wildlife that wanders past. I’ve seen raccoon, muskrat, skunk, and a coyote wandered past one morning. We had Coopers Hawks nest in that tree across the street.
So far, no bear.
Sub
Turkeys are fairly frequent visitors here in suburban NY. One year we had a flock of about 30 big birds wobble up the front driveway, fly up onto our roof, and down into the back yard. The house had been blessed by a giant hand. Maggie the d*g was sleeping and knew nothing of the visitation.
I work in Novi, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. Our office building is near a small woods and stream.
About three winters ago, we had a turkey show up. He stayed near our office for about two months, pecking at the windows. He would walk up to people in the parking lot. If you walked calmly, he just slowly follow you. Alas, most of the tenants were terrified of him. Most people would run from him, so he would run after them, then they would report being “attacked” by the turkey. I would see people out there swinging their briefcases at him.
Enough people complained that the animal control people came and took him away.
Poor, misunderstood Turkey!
Impressive. Though I suspect that kind of bird would not last among the coyotes and bobcats in the Southwest.
Wild Turkeys do quite well here in the Midwest and we have as many Coyotes and cats as any place I know. The Turkeys were not here in Iowa naturally, but were brought in by the DNR, department of natural resources. Pretty much an misnamed organization since there is nothing natural about them.
Turkeys are known for their ability to trick predators and they are very difficult to hunt….so they actually do quite well in coyote areas.d
We have had ducks and geese and the occasional herp visit out suburban yard, but the turkeys, which are very numerous in the area, seem to stay about a block away.
I like how the turkey casually moves away from the car each time.
No snow in Wisconsin, well, none in that neighborhood?
Mike
Exactly my reaction.
Of course, looks like I need to mow my lawn instead of shoveling snow. We had 60s and 70s recently. The grass is green and growing, the daffodils are emerging. Weird, weird, weird.
Thanks for that. I’m in Juneau and the Midwest typically has harsher winters than our coastal banana-belt area of Alaska. That said we just had a foot of snow yesterday.
Daffodils? Wow.
Mike
Fox News Reporter, to Turkey : “And which way did you vote?”
Turkey to Faux News Reporter : “Look, I’m a bloody Turkey! But even I understand the concept of a secret ballot better than you and your clones do. Eejit!”
GB, what a riot! I hope the turkey eventually found some conspecifics as they’re generally not too happy alone.
The work your friends do is so inspiring! I should think it would also be quite dangerous.
I’ve wondered about it from time to time (the danger aspect.) It is all the more reason to support them.
I love their school motto. “With Science, we can progress”.
They are well worth supporting and I fly Uganda’s flag as a way to bring the subject up. Like I did here. 😉
There are lots of ways to help. I’ve been sponsoring one girl student for the past few years. Contributions can be made via Atheist Alliance International.
(Forgive me, Professor Ceiling Cat, if I’m violating any roolz against promotion… I can’t help myself.)
Thanks for the link–quite the website! I have it bookmarked for looking at when I have time to really view it thoroughly. Looks like a great initiative and a somewhat more personal/directed giving opportunity than some of the large, broad-spectrum charities.
Given the dismal contribution of American Christian missionaries to the homophobic “kill-the-gays” laws in Uganda, I think American atheists have a special role to play in fostering free-thinking in Africa.
A good way of looking at it.
Do you ever get anyone–say, Ugandans–stopping by to inquire about your flag?
Not yet. 😉 There probably aren’t a lot of Ugandan’s passing by, though. I also fly flags from other places that I have some connection with. It keeps the neighbors wondering what they are. (Few recognize Cornwall, Newfoundland, or Bohemia, for example.)
I wouldn’t recognize Cornwall, and I’m Cornish (on my father’s side).
Or is that “Cornwall, Newfoundland” (you never know with USanian / Canuckistanian place names).
cr
Heh…
No, it is Cornwall, UK. This flag.
Here’s Newfoundland. (This is the old flag designed, I believe, but the same guy who did the Irish flag.)
Here’s the current Newfoundland-Labrador flag.
I don’t recognize the first Newfie flag but I do recognize the last one (I had to raise flags every morning at the park I worked at & I had to put up all the provincial flags from east to west in order) so I got to recognize all the provincial flags.
If you visit Newfoundland you will see the old flag flying here and there. It is from before NL was an actual province of Canada. There are some religio-ethnic aspects to it, as I understand things. There were those who opposed becoming part of Canada, mostly Catholics. The Protestant types favored joining. They won, of course, so I suspect flying the old one in NL is a kind of political statement. (I’m not burdened by that, however, and fly it to confuse my many Irish-American neighbors.)
I copying be wrong, but Newfoundland copying be any we have public funding for Catholic Schools now as that funding comes from the British North America Act(BNA) which was altered to convince Newfoundland to join the Dominion in 1949.
You would know better than I. I’m just a tourist whose daughter went to Memorial University and picked up a few nuggets of local history when visiting. (And a flag, of course.) 😉
No, never seen that Cornish flag before. (Or maybe seen it and just didn’t recognise it).
Googlemaps doesn’t list a Cornwall, Newfoundland but there is a Cornwall, Ontario.
So my surmise wasn’t ridiculous, at least. 😉
cr
I’m also from the upper midwest. Turkeys and many other forms of wildlife were non-existent or quite rate in my youth back in the ’60s. We used to drive to a nearby marsh to see the migration of canada geese, as it was a rare occasion to see so many such critters. (Can you say DDT?)
I remember nearly wetting myself when I saw my first wild turkey alongside the road a couple of decades ago. Today, flocks of a dozen turkeys routinely roam through my yard. Fox are not uncommon, and coyotes routinely howl at night. Canada geese (and their droppings) are considered a menace. I even saw a bald eagle last week along a nearby river, something unheard of a decade ago.
So not everything is terrible!
I was driving along a gravel road in NZ (Black Head Road, near Porangahau) when I came on a row of turkeys sitting in line astern across the road. I had to slow right down and they grudgingly got up and walked out of the way.
I’ve also seen peacocks, and a sulphur crested cockatoo. Amazing the unexpected wildlife you come across on gravel roads in the back of nowhere.
cr
Yeah, I was on a country road when I had to stop & let a bunch of turkey hens cross. They seemed just like old ladies, looking all around. They just acted like it was normal to have a car stop & let them cross in front of it.