Friday, February 17, 2017

It was a wild turkey morning!

My son Timmy noticed them first.

"There's a bunch of turkeys in the yard."

As soon as I heard his words, I switched gears from working online to real-time interaction with wildlife just outside the house.

While Timmy leaned on the window-seat to watch, I grabbed my camera and zoomed in on a flock of eight females (hens) and one young male (a jake) wandering across an unmown field between the woods and lakes.


The flock of wild Osceola turkeys wandering across the field between the lake and woods


Although Tim and I were more than 50-feet away inside a building looking through a window, the turkeys seemed quite aware of our presence.


Hens paying attention to their surroundings


As you watch the video below you'll notice several birds standing quite still looking toward the camera while a couple other hens seem more intent on finding food in the long grass and weeds than assessing potential danger.




If my son hadn't noticed the turkeys when he did, I probably would not have seen them. During the time when the flock was meandering through the yard, I was in one of those all too familiar online trances that have become commonplace in our computer-connected society.

Now that the interaction is over, I can't help but wonder how many other wildlife encounters I've missed by being too 'busy' doing 'important' stuff online (think: Facebook) when I could have been interacting with subjects of real importance like wild turkeys and other untamed wonders.

Such is a push-pull of the modern world: How to live with an awareness of nature while staying connected via the Internet with the world outside our door.  It's an effort I'm still working on...

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