For those of you who do not live in the Midwestern United States, you might not be aware of all the wildlife that live around these parts. Actually, scratch that thought. I don't think that there are any species unique to just to the state I live in. Since I live in the city, I myself don't even come into contact with nature that often, except for squirrels, rabbits, and birds. However, there are some turkeys that live in this wooded patch about a block away from my house. We used to see two or three female turkeys out at a time, and on rare occasions we'd see a Tom. A few weeks ago, though, things took quite an interesting twist.
I had stayed home from school because I had a doctor's appointment, so it was around 1 pm and just my mother and I were home. I was washing my hands at the sink in my kitchen, which has a window in front of it that overlooks my backyard. As I turned the sink off, I had to do a double take. In my back yard were 7 turkeys!! They were all hanging out at the three bird feeders my dad put in our backyard. I started screaming my mom's name, and she came running out because she thought I was hurt. But when she saw the turkeys, she got just as exited as I was. Ever since then, they've come back at least two or three times a week and just peck at our bird seed. One even flew up on top of our house. The only problem is that these turkeys are pretty fearless animals, so they have no issue going into my next door neighbor's yard, even though they have two large hunting dogs. There have been no turkey fatalities yet, thank heavens, but I'm starting to worry they'll run out of luck soon.
Even though my camera is broken, my mom managed to snap a few pictures on her Ipod of the turkeys:
I had stayed home from school because I had a doctor's appointment, so it was around 1 pm and just my mother and I were home. I was washing my hands at the sink in my kitchen, which has a window in front of it that overlooks my backyard. As I turned the sink off, I had to do a double take. In my back yard were 7 turkeys!! They were all hanging out at the three bird feeders my dad put in our backyard. I started screaming my mom's name, and she came running out because she thought I was hurt. But when she saw the turkeys, she got just as exited as I was. Ever since then, they've come back at least two or three times a week and just peck at our bird seed. One even flew up on top of our house. The only problem is that these turkeys are pretty fearless animals, so they have no issue going into my next door neighbor's yard, even though they have two large hunting dogs. There have been no turkey fatalities yet, thank heavens, but I'm starting to worry they'll run out of luck soon.
Even though my camera is broken, my mom managed to snap a few pictures on her Ipod of the turkeys:
Here they all are, huddled around the bird feeder!
A close-up.
This past weekend, the plot thickened further when my dad was out on his morning jog. Out in the grass terrace in front of some apartments my dad found a baby owl! It was injured, though, and couldn't fly away. He came home and called the Humane Society, and they told us to bring the owl in so they could rescue it. My mom went and wrapped it up in a blanket and put it in a box. She showed it to me before they departed for the Humane Society, and we snapped a few pictures of the owl. (Sorry for the blurriness, but the Ipod camera couldn't focus very well)
Here he is! We named him "Lil Guy". He was so fluffy, I wanted to pet him so bad, but I knew that wouldn't be a very good idea...
He finally opened his eyes in this picture! As you can see, he was not a happy camper.
The Humane Society has yet to follow up with us on his condition, but if we find out how he's doing, I'll be sure to let you all know! So, do you have any interesting animal stories of your own?
Omg, this was so great, Hannah! The owl was adorable!
ReplyDeleteWhen I lived in Elkhorn, we had turkey's on our property, and my mom would gobble at them, and they would gobble back. It was pretty cool, although I have to wonder if she was cussing them out or something...
Once, when driving through the country in Weeping Water, NE (you might remember this as the place where we went to the restaurant with the back room) we saw a herd of deer. They all jumped over the fence in a line on the left side of the road, ran across, and disappeared into the field on the other side. The last deer tried to jump over the fence, but ended up head butting it. I couldn't stop laughing for miles.
At my Mother's new house, there are apparently tons of owls that just hang in the backyard on the wire. I have yet to see them for real, but Ginger managed to snap a picture for me.
There are more stories, but I think I'll leave it at that. :oD
Josalyn, those stories are great! :D Thank you so much for sharing them, they were lovely to read. I can't believe that deer that head butted the fence! I wish I could have seen that one! ;o Also, I hope you can see those owls IRL, that'd be soooo cool :)
DeleteWow, I've never seen so many turkeys in a yard! I know that there are some around here, but that's pretty interesting. My best animal story is that there's a farm on my block, and one day, their donkeys got out. My family called animal control, but they couldn't do anything, so they had us call 911, at which point some cops came out and just looked at the donkeys for a while, pointing and laughing. It's not as exciting as either of the stories here, but when it happened, it was hilarious.
ReplyDeleteAlso, thanks for your comment, too! This week, I like actually stitching more, having found the sparkly mermaid, but the patterns are really fun to make, too, especially if I have an afternoon to sit around and work on them, so it's a toss-up.
Whoa, I wasn't expecting you to talk about donkeys! That's really interesting :D That sounds hilarious!
DeleteAnd I understand about not being able to decide between making patterns and stitching. They're both so fun :D I'm not so good at patterns, though. Yours are very creative!