The Wild Turkeys

For 2 years I have not gotten so much as a cold and especially Not at Christmas which was a tradition with me many years. I attribute this to having a much stronger immune system than I had before taking vitamin D every day. None the less, I got sick a couple days before Christmas. So, basically, we didn't get out for any walks as I don't have a hat or ear muffs so there was no way I wanted frozen painful ears. As well, the light was so very dull and overcast that nothing had an interesting look and any photos I may take would be full of heavy "noise" from having to boot my ISO up to pick up any information and have a decent enough shutter speed when hand holding my camera (I am not a tripod liker).

Boxing Day was going to be a stay in day, a rest and get better day. For the most part it was but my daughter had gone shopping (earlier than I leave for work lol!) that morning and needed a ride from the Go station home. She lives fairly close to me so this was fine. We had about an hour and a half before she'd be in the station and sick of sitting around I thought why don't we do a quick get out to Lynde Shores then leave and grab her at the station when she lets us know she is almost there.

We just did the regular little path at Lynde Shores, not going very far. There were a few people there but it was pretty dismal out and most were probably shopping indoors or still visiting family and friends for the holidays. The ducks were acting a bit odd, walking a few steps then plunking down to rest for a few moments, then getting up and moving a few more steps, only to plunk down again. As we headed up the path, we saw what was probably the same group of turkeys we see in the farm fields along Halls Rd. They were right on the path eating what was probably dropped bird seed. As soon as we got too close, off they ran into the forest area, down onto the path further on, then doubled back as we followed the path to see where they went. 2 recent fallen trees blocked our way so we climbed around them and the turkeys were down further on the path. People were coming along the path from the opposite side which inadvertently boxed in the turkeys so they had no choice but to head back into the forest. Your could see them through the pretty sparse cover, trotting in line, jumping over a fallen tree, heading back to the first area we saw them. I have never seen them this close, and never at Lynde Shores, they tend to be timid, but they must have been really hungry this day.

There were 14 turkeys, probably mostly females but there were a couple that had the beginnings of the red piece on their neck and these are most likely the juvenile males from the batch of babies we saw in the summer. The adult male turkey we only saw once and this was in spring, with him desperately trying to get over a fence, trying to get away from us as we had come up on him suddenly while driving along Halls Rd. Generally, you don't see the adult male hanging with the group of females except at breeding season.

We saw the leucistic Chickadee again, as well as the usual Blue Jays, White Breasted Nuthatch and lots of squirrels. Gratefully, "killer squirrel" was scarce today, thank gawd because we didn't have food on us as we figured we'd only be about 45 mins then heading to get my daughter, and back home again to just veg and watch a flick and have dinner.