Turkeys!

[Crankin]

We have a flock (?) of turkeys in my neighborhood. They live on top of the hill, under a water tower that is up there. When we first moved here, I was riding down the hill when one decided to cross the street in front of me. I was scared to death (it stopped) mostly because I didn't know what it was at first. They are HUGE and fairly ugly, too.
I have seen a few of them fly, very awkwardly, to the top of the trees and rest there for awhile.

[SlowButSteady]

Wild turkeys can fly close to 50 miles per hour. They're omnivorous and will eat from bird feeders when available. There isn't much I don't know about Meleagris gallopavo, and the only thing I haven't seen one do is swim, though I've seen rare photos of that.

It's currently their mating season. While XY's can gobble year-round, peak gobbling activity is in the spring. They have a complex vocabulary. Only the males gobble & strut (well, sometimes I have seen hens strut). Hen vocalizations include mating yelps, clucks, purrs, and something called cutting. Juvies do a shrill whistle called a kee-kee.

I've seen them at dawn come sailing off the side of a mountain in Sonora, Mexico. The wind whistling in their wings...it sounds like a bomb dropping.

It's making me misty-eyed as we speak.

Ugly? It's in the eye of the beholder.

Great photos. Thanks for sharing; it made my day.

[Brandi]

We just got back from camping here in our county. And there were so many turkeys! They were waking us up every morning! Those turkeys!