Turkey #1 (in the street) was so puffed up he looked massive and he dragged his striped wing feathers along the ground such that it sounded like stiff cardboard being dragged along the road. He also seems to have created some kind of weird chest ornamentation for himself (all the better to impress the ladies!).
Mean while on a nearby lawn Turkey #2 appears to have most of the gals in his harem. Only one is near T1 and I think that is just because she got accidentally separated on the wrong side of the fence. The old "divide-and-conquer" strategy no doubt.
Turkey 2
back to Turkey 1
Keep in mind this is going on in the street of a city of 90,000 people, possibly even in front of children (should any be lucky enough to actually be outside playing). After twenty minutes I got restless and continued on to a small pond in nearby Boston.
As I arrived ten minutes later it was clear that another major avian rivalry was underway. A white swan was on a rampage, terrorizing, intimidating, and pursuing a flock of Canada geese who apparently also felt a desire to swim/nest/congregate in this particular pond. I needn't tell you how un-swanlike this behavior was....in fact, this swan was swimming after individual geese so quickly it was like watching the galleys going "ramming speed" in Ben Hur.
look at that wake!
At this point my camera battery died so I did not get the shots of the swan literally running across the top of the water with wings spread as wide as they could go, his neck fully extended, and making loud (and again, very un-swanlike) guttural noises. I eventually had to depart even though the action showed no sign of abating. I left content in the knowledge that there is actually a creature is the world that can intimidate a Canada goose.
Finally, on a different subject, here is my newly cleaned and reglazed window I bought on Craig's List from a contractor who was demolishing a house in my town. Look at that glazing job! Uncle Joe, you taught me well......
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