We have two short contributions today, and I make my usual plea for readers to send in their photos.
The first is the rescue of a wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) by reader Mark Shifman. His photos are indented and, as with all photos, you can click them to enlarge them.
I got up this morning and went to see about storm damage from last night. As I approached my backdoor I could see the outline of something large on my deck rails. I assumed it was debris blown into the yard but as I got close, I realized it was a wild turkey. It must have been blown into my yard by the storm, and couldn’t get back out through my fence. [JAC: Wild turkeys can fly, though not well, but certainly enough to get out. I’m not sure why this one was trapped.]
I walked out to open the gate and shot these. Shot with a Pixel8 on an overcast day. I opened the gate but as soon as it saw that, it ran out and flew off before I could get any more.
And some baby foxes photographed by the daughter of Leo Glenn (the quality is a bit low because they were taken with a phone).
I thought I would share some photos my daughter took on April 9th of this year. She just happened upon a red fox (Vulpes vulpes) den, and was treated to a wonderful encounter with some very curious fox kits. The mother was there also, but took off before my daughter could take her picture. She said there were at least four kits, but she only managed to photograph two at a time. Western Pennsylvania.
They can fly but apparently need a little runway to get going. This one made a few attempts but couldn’t quite take off. But as soon as it saw the gate open, it ran through and flew across the river. HUGE wingspan.
Speaking of “trapped” birds, a while ago I heard some kind of commotion on my seventh floor balcony. When I looked out there was a pigeon walking around on the balcony floor. He kept trying to fly away but kept hitting the lightly tinted glass panels. A little later another pigeon arrived who, after first perching on the railing, flew down to the floor and then flew away by easily flying over the railing. The original bird then followed suit. If birds could blush I bet his face would have been red.
When I lived in Ottawa, I used to feed a covey of partridges that wintered in the field behind my house. Every afternoon at 4 p.m. they would squeeze under the fence and eat the pheasant scratch that I put down for them (under my pear tree, ironically). But if the snow was too deep and they couldn’t get under the fence, they’d run back and forth along the fence line and eventually give up. These birds could fly quite well. I never figured out why they wouldn’t just fly over the fence when they couldn’t get under.
The baby foxes are adorable!
Nice pictures!
Yes, turkeys can fly. When my wife and I were living in rural southwestern Virginia many years ago, my wife was walking down our driveway one morning as she often did to start her day. Unexpectedly, a dozen wild turkeys were roosting just above her in the trees in our nearby woods. When she startled them, they left their perches and flew away. They flew well enough to startle my wife!
Those baby foxes – awwwww!!!
I enjoyed these chance encounters. A “trapped” turkey and baby foxes. What fun.