To show that he wasn’t a chicken!  Follow along.  The title really does have something to do with the story.

Some of the family is coming to our house for Easter dinner.  The plan was to serve ham, turkey, lots of side dishes, salads, and desserts.  There will be about 20 people here, a few less than the last time we entertained a crowd.  However, the plan has changed a bit.

Today was the day to go to the store to buy the turkey and the ham.  On the way to the store, I had to stop in the middle of the road.  There was something crossing the road.  It wasn’t a chicken.

Can you see it?  It’s very well camouflaged by the woodsy environment.

The turkey made it all the way across the road before I could get my camera ready and focused.  I had just come over a little hill in the road and I was on a curve.  In other words, I was in a dangerous spot to be parked in the middle of the road even though there is very little traffic in this spot.  However, I took the risk for two reasons.  1) I did not want to hit the turkey; and 2)  I wanted to get this picture because I knew nobody would believe this story without the photographic evidence.  Here I was, on my way to the store to buy turkey and there is a turkey in the road.  I only buy turkeys two or three times a year.  What a coincidence!

Zooming in, you can see him a little more clearly.  He’s actually quite attractive, for a turkey.  And it is a “he.”  The females are smaller and a more solid, darker brown in color, and they do not have the wattle (the dangling red skin under the chin), not to be confused with the waddle.  Both sexes of turkey waddle, but their legs are longer and unlike ducks, they run fast, with a waddling gait. I suppose we would waddle too if we were shaped like a 30-pound egg with a head on a long neck in front and a tail of feathers in the back, trying to balance and run on those skinny, stick legs.

Wow!  Up close, he has a vibrant red wattle, a bluish face, beautiful orange and yellow feathers on his chest.  What a pretty fowl!  You can even see his beard, that long, hair-like cluster of feathers growing out of the front of his chest.

I’ve circled the beard here because it is difficult to see.  Look at all of the things you can learn by living in the woods?  Who needs the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, or shopping on the Avenue des Champs-Elysèes when you can have bearded turkey sightings instead?  (Moi, that’s who!)

The turkey made it safely across the road.  And I made it safely to the store, where I purchased all of the ingredients that I needed, to roast a turkey make vegetable lasagna and ham for Easter dinner.  I’m just glad there wasn’t a pig in the road, too.

I know we are all very busy, but if you could take one second and click on an answer, I would be so pleased to know that the poll is working and I installed it correctly.  Merci!

Bebe