Here to Stay

 My camera hangs out in my pocket, so I can snap pictures on the spur of the moment. So my turkey pictures tend to be more distant, and less focused than these that Sarah took last week on the lawn here at Bondi Village.

It is hard to describe a turkey as beautiful, really. Especially if you look at the heads... but if you focus on the feathers, the soft blend of colours, they are among the most striking birds.

And big. These would run up to 20 pounds, easily.  They are a bird that my grandparents and my parents never saw up here. Recent arrivals, the milder winters are suiting them just fine, and they have very few predators (other than people) so their numbers are increasing every year.  The downside? They eat up the acorns and beech nuts, referred to as "mast" that usually fuel the bears getting ready to sleep the winter away, the deer that crave that energy to add to their lean diet of twigs and buds, the squirrels who need to (pardon the pun) squirrel away supplies for the starving months. They eat ground nesting birds and their eggs and hatchlings. Snakes, and frogs...  They will in fact eat just about anything. Big, bold, fast and strong, they are giving us all life lessons in how introducing a species can change the entire eco system.