The other afternoon as my son and I were returning from Lowes, we happened upon a lone turkey hen on our country road. I slowed the truck down to a crawl so we didn’t spook her. She slowly meandered along the fence line looking for an easy escape but not necessarily wanting to fly her way out of it.
She kept going down the fence line and wasn’t finding easy egress. I lifted my foot off the brake and just let the truck idle along our lonely country road. We eventually caught up to her and she was getting a bit more frantic in getting away. However, she couldn’t find a break in the wire fence and hid in the brush, which gave her cover but also prevented her from utilizing her flying option. My son and I ended up only 6-8 feet away from her in the truck. We were able to get a really good look at her. I had never been that close up to a wild turkey and she was beautiful. We were both amazed we were able to get so close. After a long look, I decided to slowly idle away to give her some relief and an opportunity to get back under cover. It was a neat time though.
On my way home from work this evening, I spotted an even cooler scene. Along two ponds on my work commute there are two geese raising their goslings. I have spotted them in the field with their young blobs of feathers. Well, tonight they were all out swimming. One of the geese was leading the armada in the front and the little goslings were all following in a neat line bobbing about. The other goose brought up the rear as expected. It was a beautiful sight of nature and I enjoyed the 10 seconds or so that I could catch a glimpse of as I drove by.
…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net
