Heck Of A Guy

Turkey and poult, back lawn, photo taken July 30, 2008

In April, Lady Lawanda, her usual acuity further honed by her studies in avian-recognition under the tutelage of Lord of Leisure, recorded the initial 2008 sighting of the turkey hen who appears to have returned to the same nesting area in the woods abutting the back lawn as last year.

For comparison, check out these pictures from Mom Turkey and the Brood Make An Appearance,¹ a post dated almost exactly one year ago.

Turkey hen and poults, back lawn, July 30, 2007

It was a full month after that primary sighting that I saw the same turkey, accompanied by her poult. Although I have seen them several times since, only one poult has put in an appearance this year.

According to Wikipedia,

Wild Animal Tricks

The hen seems especially skittish and wary compared to last spring and summer, leading me to wonder if this is consequent to the loss of all her brood save this one or perhaps the reduction of the area still covered by woods and brush secondary to the recent house-building frenzy nearby. Of course, the causes of this change, if indeed there has been an increase in vigilance, could lie somewhere else entirely.

Going back to the same Wikipedia, we find that

In any case, it was only this week, after several unrequited attempts, that I managed to snap the suboptimal photo at the top of this post.

Air Poult

I had observed this week that the hen and poult routinely take an early morning promenade near the house, sometimes encroaching onto the back deck and frequently venturing into the driveway within a first down of the front door. This morning, I was prepared, watching them approach the front of the house. But, just as I raised my camera, the hen pivoted abruptly and sprinted toward the side of the house with an alacrity rivaling that exhibited by the female faction of Very Very Good Girl’s bridal party desperately fleeing the tossed wedding bouquet.

More impressively, the poult simultaneously took wing and ascended – evoking not so much the graceful flight of a majestic bird as an inexplicably feathered, appendage-fluttering cannonball – to perch on the roof of the house at least 20 feet above the ground² having also traveled more than 25 feet horizontally.

That poult’s style may be a tad rough, but he’s got Michael Jordan-quality hops and a hang time to die for.

Footnotes

1. A video of the turkeys ie embedded at Mom Turkey and the Brood Make An Appearance↩
2. Further, he landing point was as least 2 or 3 feet below the apex of the bird’s trajectory↩