Tag: Turkeys

Safe for Another Year

A little over a year ago I wrote Thankful Turkeys Celebrate – Turkey Day of Infamy 2018.

You’ll be thrilled to know they made it through another remembrance of avian holocaust.

We waited to publish this year’s turkey celebration until all holidays had past.

Safer for them, safer for us.

Sometimes I’ll go out and commune with them. Don’t want to be mistaken for a turkey, me.

You’ll note that Agnes is not in attendance.

We’re concerned, as we miss our friends even though we know they wait for us.

That is The Old Ones promise handed down since before Two-Legs walked on two legs; “We’ll wait for you.”

They have no sense of worlds beyond their own (or at least they’re not telling. I mean, would you? And ruin the neighborhood?) and, as Borges said, “To be immortal is commonplace; except for man, all creatures are immortal, for they are ignorant of death.”

So we ask those that move on to wait for us.

Or they tell us they will.

There is no hurry.

All things return.

 

Arabeth and Ophelia

Table for One. And another Table for One.

A while back I wrote about Ophelia and Arabeth.

Well, they’re back at it again.

This time Ophelia came to dine first.

Arabeth, you’ll note, is hesitant.

Which is why we set a separate table for her a little further back.

Good host and hostess, we.

Not peace at all costs, more like peace if it’s an obtainable solution.

But truth is, we’ve never had squabbles in our backyard.

Okay, once when some foolish chipmunk decided to have a go at Agnes’s seeds (hence the Chippie War Dance).

But such things are rare.

If only Two-Legs got along as well.

 

Matron Aunt Gracie

It’s good to have backup

Hecate and her kits come out during daylight now. Fewer predators and a good supply of food, I’d guess.

This is not to suggest the children wander about unchaperoned.

Enter Matron Aunt Gracie.

You may remember Gracie. She’s appeared on her own and often with Hecate. They’re BFF, you know.

Gracie will fluff at first when Hecate’s tribe trundles out. They’re not delicate or subtle-footed, this brood.

Then she settles down. Remember toughguy Clyde (aka Brutus)? He’ll charge her. She’ll look down at him and spread her wings. He runs back to Hecate. She ignores him.

Sounds like my mother, my aunt, and me, come to think of it.

 

Hecate and Gracie, Together Again

There are no egos in The Wild. Not for long, anyway

For about a week, Gracie and Hecate didn’t dine together. Regular readers may remember our previous post about these BFFs and we were concerned when we’d see Gracie or Hecate for a bit. Then one would come, not the other.

Not sure what happened.

Did these BFFs have a falling out?

In The Wild?

Such things don’t happen. Different species will often have overlapping territories. Members of the same species usually don’t unless they’re pack, colony, hive, et cetera, creatures.

Overlapping territories easily occur with different species when they require different resources; a turkey and a raccoon don’t go after the same food supplies.

This brings us to another territorial constraint; same or similar resource requirements. Example: two relatively equal predators usually don’t mark out the same territory. Unequal predators – fox and bear, for example – will have overlapping territories and you know the fox isn’t going to challenge the bear for a bit of food.

In any case, the rules of The Wild make good precedent for us Two-Leggers: Respect your neighbors. Clean up after yourself. Share when you can. There are no egos in The Wild. There can’t be. Egos are expensive and never worth their cost. Rules are simpler in The Wild. There are no empty threats; if Old One A shows a territorial display and you insist on invading A’s territory, A will respond with force to get you out of its territory. Two-Leggers are always making empty threats, most times because they don’t know what’s their territory and what isn’t; the border between selfish and selfless is poorly defined or doesn’t exist at all. Ego kicks in and attempts to create a territory where one doesn’t exist.

And Gracie and Hecate are together again. The borders are intact. We’re glad.

 
Besides, they were probably off visiting friends.

Hecate and Gracie – BFF

Nothing like a daily meet and greet with someone you know and love

Observe Hecate and Gracie. Hecate’s on the left, Gracie’s on the right. The video below is in two parts with several days in between.

Hecate always comes mid afternoon now and I wrote about the significance of such. What’s interesting is that she’s made friends with a turkey.

A turkey?

They’re not natural enemies in The Wild. They’re not natural friends, either. Raccoons will eat turkey eggs left unattended. They’re opportunistic that way.

But a young adult hen (we’re still in doubt about Gracie’s gender, truth be told. She’s starting to show some male traits. Steroids, we think) and a mother raccoon? Hmm…

They’ll come into the yard separately, see each other and with a few clucks and chortles of greeting, begin dining side-by-side.

Totally different species making it work.

They pity us, I’m sure. All humans are the same species and we can’t make it work.

But I digress…

The other day we noticed some new behaviors. Hecate, shortly after she arrives, sits back and stares into our backroom to get our attention. Failing that, she’ll come up on the porch and walk back and forth. Failing that, she’ll (I’m not kidding) come to the back door and pound on it. Okay, scratch at it. To her, I’m sure she’s pounding.

The new behavior involved Gracie. Not having any fresh seed, she came to one of the windows and stared in, clucking. That failing, she walked back and forth on our porch. Failing that, she…

 
Truth be told, I was so involved in work I didn’t notice her until I saw our cat staring at her.

But it doesn’t end there. Gracie and Hecate both stare at us now. Gracie clucks and fluffs and spreads her wings to get our attention. Hecate incites her, “Do it again. I think it’s working.”

Anyway, Hecate and Gracie. BFF.