Tuesday, September 08, 2009

And They're Off...

There they were a short time before the sun went down yesterday, a happy bunch of wild turkey jakes (juvenile males), gallivanting along a country road in the Lanark Highlands and reluctant to leave what seemed to them to be a safe and easy evening jaunt along the gravel and into the cornfields nearby.

For some reason, a group of wild turkeys is usually referred to here in the north as either a rafter or a gang. Neither expression makes any sense to me - a group of turkeys can only be called a gobbling, in much the same way that I will always think of a group of crows as being a rowdy.

Whatever one chooses to call them, wild turkeys can run like race horses when the spirit moves them - this assemblage had no trouble at all in staying well ahead of the old VW on that lovely winding dirt road in Lanark.

6 comments:

Tabor said...

What a treasurable event.

hele said...

how beautiful they are. like dancers.

Iktomi said...

this looks like the road where i live... lol... there are a bunch of turkeys that live in the brushes just off the road and they often cross the road or jog along it. :)

Barbara Anne said...

Love the pictures. I cannot remember what a group of turkeys are called, but for crows, it's "a murder of crows". Go figure!

We had a doe in our back yard today. We have 2+ acres of woods behind our home and wild strawberries draw the deer out in the summer and this doe clearly was enjoying something that was growing. It is such a gift to see wild things living their lives unhindered.

Thanks!

susan j preston said...

I love it! A turkey parade. Are you familiar with the Native American Indian's view of these amazing creatures? They represent humility and generosity... big lessons to be learned from these lovely creatures.

kerrdelune said...

Sorry to republish this, but the photo went walkabout at Flickr for some reason, and I tucked it back in.