©Bert Gildart: Despite the bad manners of this and other turkeys, which continue to gather at our bird feeder, today we pardoned these turkeys. We have absolved them of their sins.

Our pardon is unlike the annual presidential pardon, which grants some lucky turkey life for a sin whose only crime was to grow fat on an obscure farm. Our pardon forgives real sins. Our pardon forgives the many turkeys that not only gather at our feeder, but also those that knock over the feeder in their effort to expose the seed. Worse yet, our pardon forgives those that poop all over the deck and the railing that supports our feeder. Some might consider all unforgivable sins, particularly the later.

I, however, realize that the turkey is a bird deserving of much respect, and to support my contention quote from columnist Ellen Goodman, who in turn was quoting Greg Butcher of the Audubon Society. “It’s a strange era,” said Butcher, “where every species is either too common or too rare.”

TURKEY‘S ATTRIBUTES SUPERIOR

Butcher continued, saying that the “differential” seems to be the creatures’ “willingness to put up with the human lifestyle.” Goodman concludes her column with a thought of her own, saying that “Maybe Ben Franklin was right when he said that the wild turkey–not the bald eagle–should be our national bird.

“After all,” concluded Goodman, “the eagle in all of its restored glory, soars majestically above the fray. But the turkey is down here, gobbling, squabbling and flourishing, while we try to figure our place in the pecking order.”

I like the philosophies that seem to crop up around Thanksgiving and recall that last year at this time, we were traveling in North Carolina, and had just visited an Indian chief at the Cherokee Heritage Center. We learned much from that visit and received several comments from a subsequent Thanksgiving posting based on our visit with Mr. Wolf.

Check it out, but in the meantime both Janie & I wish everyone many, many Happy Thanksgivings.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! HAPPY THANKSGIVING! HAPPY THANKSGIVING

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 at 8:01 am and is filed under Natural History/Conservation, View Point. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.