I live in town. Right in the middle of town, but sometimes I feel like I'm in a forest. Like The Forest of Feelings on Care Bears, just minus all the Care Bears and the Care Bear Cousins. Sometimes I want to sing a beautiful song like a Disney Princess for all of the animal friends that come to visit me in my backyard.
Squirrels don't even phase me anymore. They inhabit all of the trees behind my house and are constantly jumping from branch to branch. They're everywhere. I'm also used to jumbo rabbits hopping around my backyard. Birds? Yes. Foxes? Check. Stray cat family? Of course. My most recent addition to my backyard menagerie is wild turkeys. I feel like I've been talking about my turkey friends a lot lately. I feel that way because I have been talking about them a lot. I've even imitated the way that they run to at least 6 people. I'll do it for you too, if you ask me to. They run in a funny way. Almost a frolic, if you will. They sure are fast though. A wild turkey would beat me in a race for sure. Most wild animals would probably beat me in a race, actually.
I first saw a turkey a couple of weeks ago. Daisy woke me up at 6:30 in the a.m. barking like she's never barked before. It wasn't a "I want to go outside to pee" bark. Daisy doesn't wake me up to use the outdoor facilities anyway. She's a good dog and would let her Mom sleep all the day long. She's probably damaging her bladder by doing so, but I guess that's how she shows me loyalty and love. Anyway, it was a "something very large and very scary is outside of the bedroom window" bark. I opened the blinds and this big brown turkey was standing on my patio outside of my bedroom window. This thing was taller than my kindergarten students. It took me a bit to realize what it was because, well, I just woke up, but, really, who has a turkey outside their bedroom? I guess I do.
Last weekend, I'm hanging out in my house, when out on the lawn, there arose such a clatter. Not really, but something made me look outside, and I saw another turkey. This one was colorful, which apparently means it's a boy turkey. I ran to get my camera because I wanted some evidence of my turkey friends. Below are a couple of pictures I managed to snap before he took off. As I mentioned above, they're pretty fast.

Here's my boy turkey pecking away at the ground.

Here he is as he begins to trot off. Silly turkey was headed right for the road.
So, I've seen a girl turkey and a boy turkey. It's apparently mating season, so I bet these two love birds (pun intended) are trying to find each other. Glad my backyard is a hotspot for love. I wish these two turkeys the best and hope to see them and perhaps some of their turkey friends around soon.