Slightly Off the Mark: animals

Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts

These Photos Are For Turkeys

It's been an incredible month--incredible sometimes meaning incredibly bad--so this is just a flyby photo post; I hope it won't be too much of a turkey.

The only time I ever saw turkeys as a kid was at Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. That's because over-hunting and deforestation wiped them out in Indiana. (For which I plead innocent: Despite my name, I've never hunted. I have cut down a few trees, but never mind.)

But they're back!

I'm sure most of us consider that a good thing, but not necessarily.

You see, despite the famous WKRP In Cincinnati episode, it turns out turkeys can fly. Wild turkeys can, anyway, for up to a hundred yards at 55 miles an hour. I once saw a car come within a few feet of hitting a turkey flying across the road at windshield level, which would definitely have made a mark. I don't think that driver would have been happy with his catch.

The Indiana Department of Natural Resources brought turkeys back, and they arrived in northern Indiana during the 80s and 90s. These days you can find rafters of turkeys in all 92 Indiana counties. (That's the official name for a flock of turkeys. No, I don't know why.)

I took all of these photos in northern Indiana. Most, like the one above, came from Pokagon State Park or the area of Chain O' Lakes State Park. The near-collision I witnessed was about halfway between Kendallville and Avilla in Noble County.

The one above I tried to sharpen, but just made it look worse, and then I couldn't locate the original ... so I left the rest alone. (I mean I tried to sharpen the photo, not the meat carver.)

I also took most of them from near a road, or even from the car. As if deer weren't a danger enough! But I can tell you from experience that if you're on a trail and hear a turkey crashing through the underbrush, it sounds like you're on the wrong end of a Jurassic Park movie. My wife tells me armadillos are just as loud in the woods, and they're expanding in Indiana, too. At least they can't fly. Can they?

There are now some 125,000 wild turkeys in Indiana. But the Hoosier state is also a top producer of domestic turkeys--some 20 million turkeys are produced for consumption annually, just in this state. I hope the wild ones aren't planning a jailbreak--but I'll keep an eye on ham production, just in case.

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Remember: Benjamin Franklin thought the turkey should be our national bird, but he also had a great library.

Horses, Hats, and Road Apples

I'm not going to be posting this weekend, due to circumstances ... well, not beyond my control. Suffice it to say I'll be busy with the real world, and will give you a full report later.

So, since this is my mid-week photo blog, I decided to go with:

That's right, the 250th anniversary of patriotic horses. No, actually horses in general, and the ones who work up at the Pokagon State Park Saddle Barn in particular. That's where Emily works, in addition to all the time she spends keeping me under control.

I went through all my photos of horses, and narrowed it down to about sixty for a blog that usually has no more than 6-7 pictures. So, I think you can count on seeing more horses in the future.

This photo is over ten years old now, but it's one of my favorite ones of her leading a trail ride. I try not to be obtrusive, and she'll say something to the other riders along the lines of, "He's not creepy, he's my husband". Which doesn't guarantee I'm not creepy, of course.

I just realized, she's not wearing her hat. She almost always has one on, for sun and spider web protection.

The horses get washed ... then they roll again. Emily hates the day right after a rain storm, because even the whitest of horses is guaranteed to be ground colored.

I have to admit, I don't remember most of their names even though whenever I stop by I try to spend a few minutes with each of them. This makes more sense when you realize I also don't remember most human names. I'm also not very good at faces--of either kind.

"I'm ... BatHorse."

Actually it's a screen to keep bugs out of their faces, although I don't have a working knowledge on when they're used, and on whom. I have, however, noticed this horse being shadowed by a robin.

And yes, visitors have been known to ask if the horse is blind. He is not. Or she is not. One of those.

Here's what the actual saddle barn looks like, as the last horse goes in to end the day. They're closed on Tuesdays and Thursdays (except for the occasional special event). The rest of the days the first trail goes out at 10 a.m., and the last one at 5 p.m., barring bad weather or excessive heat.

So, do I ever ride the horses? From time to time, but Emily is usually too busy to take a photo of me. In this case it was kind of a test run for the horse she rode, so she and I were the only ones on the trail.