More action at the feeder

The crow came for a visit.

turkeys watch it

And then it was gone

My slow reaction time!

Mystery bird- American Woodcock

My faithful readers will recall, last year, April 7, 2011, I posted a dusk video of the song of a mystery bird. I couldn't see it in the dark. My late buddy, Oliver the cat, was chasing it on the lawn. Someone on YouTube suggested it is an American Woodcock. It could well be! This link has the same sounds!


I anticipate more April visitors! Today it being -10 C. and brisk.


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Habitat for Humanity Muskoka

I love watching these homes shape up from donated time and materials. I live 430 km away from my old Bala home, where I blogged the Bala build in 2010. I've kept up with my old cottage region, we cottaged there from 1960 - 2010, full time in the last 4 years. My Muskoka blog & cyberfriends post many beautiful photos to remind me of my old haunts. I created a list of them in 2009.

How much wood does it take? A lot

In the meantime, Emily has posted some more Habitat photos. She has put in 450 sweat equity hours, and anticipates moving in within the next month. For reasons I cannot go into, I am not permitted to post her photos on the official Habitat blog. Here they are, from her Facebook account. She is a terrific photographer, and I love seeing them.

The basement walls

The basement

The cement blocks are heavy!

 All those details:

cutting out for the sink!

Early December, 2011

December 20, 2011

Many volunteers give their time to a build

donated lunch!

Many companies donate the time of employees, as well as goods and services. Here are some photos!

Volunteers are required to wear hard hats and steel-toed work boots. Habitat keeps volunteer equipment for loaners!

Alex

Betty, Emily's daughter

Ken & Betty

Dave

Dorothy

Duncan & BIll

Duncan, Emily, Fred

George & Fred

Janice & Tom

Larry

Larry, Emily, Vince

Mary our lunch lady!

'Monkey' George

Katimavik crew

Oliver's staff: yay, coffee!

Peter

Royal Bank volunteers

Steve

Steve & Ken

 

Wild turkeys with or without beards

Clean up crew

I was curious about our turkeys.

They have huge feet!

Its beard drags the ground.
Don't they trip on it?

They were cleaning the driveway for me and I grabbed a photo. Must be deer food spilled!

The males are different than the females. I didn't even notice until my friend, Susan, commented on it last winter!

As I began watching them I realized that they seemed to come in same-sex groups. Either bearded males or unbearded females. On adult males, these beards average about 22 cm (9") long,  but 10 to 20% of hens also grow beards. THAT confused me.

Then I began to wonder how they cleaned  it. The deer groom each other as well as themselves! This beard hangs down onto the ground. I wonder if they trip over it!

Beard:

A male turkey grows a cluster of long, hairlike feathers from the center of its chest. This cluster is known as the turkey's beard.

The longest beard on record is more than 18 inches long.


Legs:
Wild turkey legs are reddish-orange.
They have four toes on each foot.
Male wild turkeys grow large spurs on the backs of their lower legs. These spurs are pointed, bony spikes and are used for defense and to establish dominance.

Spurs can grow up to 5 cm (2") in length. The longest spurs on record are 5.5 cm (2.25") long.
This video of mine has their sounds on it!

Here they are ON TOP of the feeder, frantically trying to get in!


Here they are showing off their beards AND their feathers! Practicing for the ladies outside my back door! The cats were fascinated, less fearful of deer than turkeys...

 

More turkey info!