.
To our delight we were honoured by a visit two days ago, of the long-absent wild turkeys.
They were a party of three, a male and female couple with a seemingly somewhat unwelcome second female hanger-on.
.
Our introduction to these magnificent birds was sudden and quite shocking.
One afternoon not long after we moved to Cambridge, I was in a room at the front of the house using my computer, when a sudden loud explosion propelled me from my chair.
Something must have blown up in the basement! But Grant came running up from there to see what was wrong and the sound seemed to have come from a back bedroom.
.
Expecting to see a hole in the roof, I was relieved that only a couple of pictures were hanging at a rakish angle, so I went to a window and looked out.
My eyes took in a distressing sight. A wild turkey was staggering about, mortally injured, having flown into the house.
.
Grant immediately ran out to wring its neck, a most distressing act of mercy.
We have no idea how it could have happened. Perhaps the bird was startled out of a nearby tree.
The only sensible thing to do was offer the carcass to other wildlife, so Grant took it down the field.
.
We watched to see who would benefit. A fox soon arrived but did not feast. It withdrew and hunkered down, watching.
Next came a possum poking about. The fox observed but did not move.
Unable to stay forever glued to the window, we set up the trail-cam from which we learned that it was a skunk mainly, that feasted and only when it was done did the fox move in, during the small hours.
(picture above from 2020)
.
Completely un-scientific observations.
Until I came here I had never “met” a wild turkey, but I had read about them in a wonderful book by Joe Hutto who is a naturalist and wildlife artist.
.
The book is an account of an experiment in which Hutto incubated two-dozen wild turkey eggs, intending to observe the effect of human imprinting on the hatchlings.
The result was surprising and touching.
It appears that a movie was made based on the book, called “My Life as a Turkey”. I know nothing about the film, only that the story is delightful.
The book is illustrated by Hutto’s fine drawings.
.
Reaching up to pull Hutto’s book from a shelf, another book fell at my feet and I can’t not mention it because it too is delightful as it is the journal written as by Mrs Chippy herself.
As I often do when I enjoy a book, I wrote to the author and apparently observed that it was obvious to me she was a cat person. She sent me back a postcard confirming this and said that it seems so were many of the men on the expedition.
Mrs Chippy was attached to the ship’s carpenter, Henry McNeish, who “never got over the loss of Mrs Chippy”.
The book’s dedication:
Mango was Ms Alexander’s African cat.
Ndikupezani is a Chichewa phrase meaning:
“I will find you”
which one says when departing on a long journey.
.
Caroline Alexander’s book “Endurance” is an accounting of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s heroic expedition.
In 1999 there was an Endurance exhibition which I went to see in New York. I am not easily impressed but it was incredible.
No doubt it was particularly meaningful as I had had the good fortune to visit Elephant Island where Shackleton’s men were stranded.
.
It was frigid but solid ground. After being stranded for 5 months on sea ice, an improvement!
Leaving 22 of his men there, Shackleton took 5 others in an open lifeboat on the 800-mile journey to South Georgia which they reached in 16 days.
(The actual lifeboat James Caird being part of the exibition was impressive! )
.
.https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/shackleton/the-expedition
Sorry, I have not yet learned how to make a neat tab for such links! I am in fact having a few WP issues and live in fear of getting logged out as the system does not appear to recognise my userid even though I copy and paste it from a signed-in page, nor does it recognise my internet address. Some people’s blogs that I follow do not recognise comments that I enter and I think it is somehow connected to these issues which I do not know how to correct.
Does this sentence even make sense?
Bah. Technology. It is at once wonderful and truly diabolical.
.
Just for fun, here’s a picture of my friend Tim (centre) and I “swimming” in Antarctica in 1981.
This was Deception Island which is a sunken volcano.
The water is a mix of very hot and very cold. One does not exactly swim. Rather you roll around endeavouring not to get scalded.
The best part was getting out and being greeted on the beach by the cruise director with his bottle of rum!
.
A strange place to end up when you were reading about wild turkeys!
All because a book fell off a shelf. I always think one should pay attention when this happens.
Thank you, Carolyn, for a wonderful post! This is what makes life and writing interesting, an element of surprise! From the tragic death of a wild turkey to the famous expedition and a bottle of rum! I have a captain’s chair used when drinking rum. It is beautiful and very comfortable too!
Joanna
Wonderful! You must endeavour to knock a book off the shelf more often.
I watched the film about the man with the Wild Turkeys in the early morning hours not very long ago. Quite remarkable and strangely affecting – a bit like swimming in Antarctic waters I imagine…
I must look for the film. Still reading your blog by the way and no closer to finding an answer to the problem! Don’t get overwhelmed by the move. Best thing is not think too far ahead!
You have led a very interesting life, Carolyn, and seen so much of the world. Thanks for taking us along with you.
Best wishes, Pete.
Nice
It must have been amazing to be able to visit Elephant Island (especially if you know the story of Shackleton’s stranded men). I still wanted to say that I had never seen wild turkeys, but was so caught up in your other stories that I forgot all about the turkeys! Thanks for a great read!