Hen Turkey: Two

Mrs. Agricola reports that the hen turkey was back yesterday, and this time she was kicking around the Quarter Acre. A neighbor reported that she and her family saw it walking down the middle of the street. We're looking forward to seeing if the bird decides to stick around the neighborhood -- perhaps it has decided to make a home amongst us.

This is pretty cool, but also somewhat problematic. We've heard of turkeys ruining cars by sitting on them and doing what turkeys do. They can also be aggressive birds, and with little kids around we will need to keep an eye out for the turkey to make sure she and the kids don't come to blows -- toddlers would not fare well in that encounter.

That said, it's interesting and we look forward to seeing how things develop. As we noted in a previous post nature is all around us, and we are living in ever-closer proximity to wild animals despite the seeming tameness of our surroundings. Were the turkey a coyote we might feel differently, but even if it were it would still be exciting to have the opportunity to watch nature up close, over our morning coffee.

Hen Turkey

Tonight, while cooking dinner, we looked outside the side-kitchen-window towards our neighbor's house and noticed a very large hen turkey scratching away on his lawn. We rustled up the kids and Pater Agricolae (he was dining with us this evening since Mater Agricolae is still in Chicago) and went to the front stoop to watch the turkey in action.

She spooked quickly and headed for more concealed forage across the street. We had neither the time nor the presence of mind to grab a camera until it was too late so we have no photographic evidence to back up our story. All in all though, it was very cool to see a turkey near the Quarter Acre. Increasingly we see more and more of these large birds all around the area, but, until today had never seen one in our neighborhood. She was a handsome bird, and we all got a tremendous kick out of our encounter.