Wild Turkey Parking

jack: 9th Jan 2006 - 15:07 GMT

so thats where our thanksgiving meal went to. i was ready to kill the turkey when it jumped off the table and ran out the door. i ran after it into traffic but lost sight of it. it must have gotten onto the ferry to the island. so i killed the neighbors cat and tried to make it look like a turkey. hard to stuff a cat, small hole.

Catherine Penfold-Waxman: 9th Jan 2006 - 15:39 GMT

"hard to stuff a cat, small hole." Very, very funny. I'm still laughing.
When I first saw the bird I thought it was a vulture, which seemed appropriate at a hospital. I'd never seen a live turkey up close.

GGP: 9th Jan 2006 - 15:50 GMT

they're pretty impressive birds. I see them upstate a lot and never fail to be taken aback. Ben Franklin wanted to make it the symbol of the US, which looking back was pretty prescient of him. you did a nice job of capturing the iridescence, too.

GGP: 9th Jan 2006 - 18:43 GMT

Turkeys seen in the Catskills this summer; the tom and his harem.

Catherine Penfold-Waxman: 9th Jan 2006 - 18:55 GMT

It looks like they live in the bird box in the tree. How'd you know which one is the tom? Can you tell what my turkey is? I felt so bad for it, lost and looking for its flock. I wanted to put it in the car and take it to the others. That suggestion was greeted by a disbelieving, blank stare from Mitch. Can't imagine why.

GGP: 9th Jan 2006 - 19:20 GMT

I actually realized there might be 2 toms in the shots. in the top shot, there's a larger bird leading the group--that is the tom. in the bottom shot, I think there may be 2 toms--one on the far left, one on the far right (ain't that always how it is?). In both shots I am using relative size to ID sex, and now that I think of it, I do think 2 males were there. according to cornell, differentiation occurs thusly: "Male larger, with much more prominent beard, head and neck completely bare, often bluish." I think your bird might be a male--the "bluish" is certainly prominent, but I wouldn't swear to it. BTW, here's a great site on birds and bird ID: www.birds.cornell.edu

Catherine Penfold-Waxman: 9th Jan 2006 - 19:31 GMT

Thank you! I think it might be a female as head, but not neck, is bare.
Although it was lost and not asking for directions...

elaine: 9th Jan 2006 - 20:02 GMT

it doesn't bode well, his girls may have been for the chop!
tis the season to be jolly, tra la la la la la la la la

jack: 10th Jan 2006 - 01:12 GMT

there is one tom the other is percy, a ballet dancer. he travells with tom for protection and love. the girls all are harem girls. so cool, i'd like to have a harem, but i get tired just thinking about sloozy female turkeys. besides i made catherine laugh with the cat thing.

barry: 10th Jan 2006 - 02:15 GMT

GPP This is what I would do if I seen Percy.

barry: 10th Jan 2006 - 04:53 GMT

I no some people will or would fine this gruesome and yes I killed tham an had one are two of tham for dinner.the rest I gived to friends.

Peter: 10th Jan 2006 - 06:15 GMT

its ok, barry. everyone is different. im glad you ate them instead of hanging them on the wall, thats for sure.

urban-dwellers like me get hypersensitized to stuff like this because we never see it or experience it in our day to day lives. you do, so thats fine. its real.

elaine: 10th Jan 2006 - 10:23 GMT

i am all for game. slaughter houses are so awful, quite apart from sympathy for the animals, i wouldn't want that amount of fear and pain on my plate. things like bambis are good cos you can't farm them and have to kill them on location so they had their real life as far as possible. on a greyscale towards humane this is why i buy halal chicken. they are at least treated with a bit of respect, also they are not endlessly 'chilled'. if i buy chicken from the halal butcher i can see it's face and feet before it is prepared for me, and these boys have not been standing in amonia and pecking each other's faces off in a factory farm, i can see it for myself.
in this country animals are often fed stuff they would never eat naturally, kept in overcrowded conditions in their own shit, endlessly transported round the country being bought and sold, needlessly, slaughtered inhumanely, their flesh 'treated' with things, over - stored, transported around again polluting the environment, stored and packaged and then sold to you. anything that cuts out any of that is good in my book.
rant rant rant - i know

Catherine Penfold-Waxman: 10th Jan 2006 - 14:22 GMT

I completely agree with Elaine.
As a kid, my Dad and brother and I used to go hunting for rabbits with ferrets. I don't think I ever caught one. I was always a bit afraid that one of my pet rabbits would become dinner. We ate the cat, though. And boy, was it hard to stuff.

jack: 10th Jan 2006 - 16:20 GMT

my brother and i were given little chicks one easter. w3e raised them in the basement and 'pecky' had a strange looking leg. well one day i found them gone and grandpa said they went out to have a family of their own. so that sunday we sat down for dinner and i noticed that the chicken leg was strangely deformed or bent if you would have it and i screemed 'its pecky, its pecky'. alas, they tried to calm me down with storie after storie but to this day i know the truth. yes, i did not eat 'pecky'. i ate the veal cutlets instead.

GGP: 10th Jan 2006 - 16:54 GMT

The story Jack tells sounds like a classic. There's a great song by Big Boy Henry, the blues singer, called "Old Bill"--it's about a guy with a rooster-friend named Bill that gets cooked for dinner when the preacher comes to the house for supper. It's a great song.

Catherine Penfold-Waxman: 10th Jan 2006 - 17:02 GMT

Poor Pecky. Poor veal. I wish I was a vegetarian. But I'm afraid that my canine teeth will fall out.

Peter: 10th Jan 2006 - 17:06 GMT

ive managed to keep mine despite not eating any animals for quit a long time ;)

barry: 17th Jan 2006 - 00:43 GMT

Catherine Penfold-Waxman: 6th Feb 2006 - 23:59 GMT

I totally missed these chickens.

GGP: 28th Mar 2006 - 13:53 GMT

cat, thought you'd want to know that there have been sightings of a wild turkey in Central Park during the past few days, on my local birding chatlist. here is an entry from this morning:

8:30 am wild turkey, female, crossing East Drive at about 68th Street heading in direction of
bandshell, mall, etc. Calm not bothered by numerous off-leash dogs who also did not seem
to take notice of it.

JS: 3rd Jun 2007 - 22:54 GMT

We saw a turkey this evening by St. John's University in Staten Island - Grymes Hill. Wonder if it was the same fellow as the one seen last year by the hospital.