Can Turkeys Fly?

Have you ever wondered if turkeys could fly? Many people think they can't. I remember years ago on a comedy TV show called "WKRP In Cincinnati" the radio station on the show did a promotion where they dropped turkeys from a helicopter. The turkeys inevitably thudded to the ground. It was a huge disaster. The last line on the show was the station manager saying, "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." So, is that the verdict? Is it settled then?

No. The turkeys in my top picture seem to be flying just fine. But wait! They don't seem to be very high off the ground, do they?

That was going to be my proof. I guess I'll have to go even further. Let's go to the next picture then.

This turkey above is flying just fine, isn't it? Maybe. It doesn't seem to be very high off the ground, does it? Maybe it's just hopping. Sometimes pictures can be deceptive. So maybe that's not proof then. Let's move to the next picture and see if I can finally show you flying turkeys.

You looked ahead, didn't you? I knew you would. So you already saw this picture above of these two turkeys in mid-flight. They are indeed flying. I'm not sure there can be any mistake about it now.

But they don't seem very high. Maybe they can only fly a little bit. And the first one doesn't look very graceful, does it? That second one looks like a regular old bird though. It's flying just fine. But maybe we can do a little better here. Let's move to the next picture.

Now this turkey here is up there pretty far. And you can see that it is indeed a turkey. Turkeys aren't the best flyers, but they can indeed fly. They like to sleep in the tops of trees around here. They have to get up there somehow, and they don't climb. Now you can call all your friends right away to inform them that turkeys can fly. Go on. Do it right now. I'll wait.

You're back from your call? Let me quickly tell you how I got these pictures. I stopped on this dirt road because I saw one lone turkey wander into the ditch at the side. I wandered over there to get a couple of pictures when all hell broke loose!

It wasn't just one turkey. It was an entire flock. As soon as I got near, turkeys kind of erupted everywhere. The flock went flying in every direction. I would have gotten video, but I was too surprised to do much of anything except get these pictures I have here. I hope you like them.

So that's my story. Turkeys can fly. And I am a close-up witness to this ability. This was another everyday adventure that I will never forget. This was a good one. I've wandered into some doozies in the past. I wish I could have described it a little better, but this will have to do. I'll talk to you later.

Ducks On The Pond

There seem to be many creatures in the pond I like to watch. I've seen turtles and many types of birds. Oddly enough, I've never seen any alligators. I guess I would be the first one to see an alligator in an Iowa pond. But I have ducks instead. They're just as fun. They really are.

I followed these two to their destination on the other side of the pond. They wanted to be over there because I was over here. Ducks always seem to swim away from me. Not like my old friends, the geese.

These ducks in the last two pictures were very difficult to see because of the bad lighting. I edited the pictures as much as I felt was reasonable so I could share them properly without them looking too obnoxious.

You can see both ducks if you look at the pictures very closely. They really are there. I mean it.

Why do I share these pictures that are so hard to see? Why not just share the good ones? Because that wouldn't be real life. These shady pictures are real life. This is how I really saw the ducks. This is a real experience. What I really like to share is my experience, not some old fancy pictures.

So this was a view of another everyday adventure by the guy stuck in an old smelly rat costume. I rented this suit nine years ago as a joke. I wonder if they're still waiting for me to return it. I probably never will, even if I somehow get this zipper unstuck, because I probably owe them a great deal of money for it by this time. I'll talk to you later.

Stalking The Bison

Do you see them? Do you see the bison in the picture above? No? Look closer. Those dots in the middle of the picture are the herd of bison that I've been tracking.

Maybe this picture just isn't good enough. Maybe you actually want to see some wild bison. Okay then. Move on to the next picture.

Here's the zoomed in super camera version of that same herd of bison. I couldn't really see them well with my own eyes, but the camera could see them just fine. Admittedly I saw them well enough to guess what they were down there. I just wasn't sure if it was bison that I was seeing. All I knew before I lifted my camera was that they were moving. That was good enough for me.

This herd was spread out a little ways from each other. These two were to the far left of the others. The top one is an adult and the bottom is a juvenile bison. I took several pictures of these two, mainly because I was able to find them with the camera. It wasn't easy to direct my camera specifically on any of them because they were so far away. One little shift and I would lose my subject.

Here's that same two, but a little closer. I was amazed that I was able to zoom in this close. I think this was as far as my camera could go. Remember, with my own eyes, these were just dots in the grass below.

You probably can't tell, but I took these pictures from a very high hill looking down into a valley where the bison were staying for the moment. The hills make some things a little easier to find.

In years past I would not have found these bison. I wasn't out enough. Now that I go out several times a week I see many things. I get to see the bison routinely. I try not to write about them too much so they won't get boring for you. I hope this time was fun. I'll talk to you later.

Ratty's Nature Video

I'm going to try something different today. Have you noticed it yet? I have no pictures. Just a video. I wouldn't have been interested in the pictures anyway this time. I only really care about the video right now, so I cut out all the other stuff to get right to the point.

This video features some of the things that I've seen around here in the past month. There are some butterflies, bison, and sunflowers. I also have a few other things in here. My videos aren't masterpieces, but I still think you'll be entertained. So give this one a try because I think you'll like it. I'll talk to you later.

The Mushroom Village

Alice took a small bite of a small mushroom and shrunk down to a size even smaller than them.

"Come live with us as the Smurfs do," said one of the now huge mushrooms.

Alice wasn't sure that was such a good idea, so she took another bite out of one of these mushroom houses.

After she grew big, Alice looked down at the tiny mushroom village and thought she would like to be very far away.

The mushrooms said, "Where will you go? Who will you visit?"

Maybe she should visit the other side of the world. The mushrooms whispered their farewell to the wind. Soon it was down, down, down the rabbit hole.

I'll talk to you later.

The Last Sunflowers

Before I had lots of sunflowers. Now I have close-ups of sunflowers for you. After all, I did promise to bring you some close-ups. I must admit though, these pictures are a few days older than the other sunflower pictures. It's because the sunflowers are now gone. The season is over for them.

But it's not over for me. I'll be bringing you many many things new and old. I still have some older things I want to share, and I'm still going out there for more. I'd love to share it all, but I'm sure some good things will fall by the wayside. It's always a shame when that happens.

I recently saw some of those huge sunflowers that are the size of kitchen clocks, but I was too busy that day to stop and get pictures. Unfortunately, when I went back those big sunflowers were already wilting away. I guess there's just no way to get absolutely everything. Maybe they'll be back next year.

The temperature has cooled down a bit here after a hot spell. Maybe it won't get that warm again this year. I'm going to miss the warm weather. Let's see if I have a better feeling about fall this year than I have every other year. I'm going to try very hard, even though I always moan to myself how much I dread fall.

But I've been having so much fun up until this point. It just can't stop now! Can it? Not if I can help it. I'm going to continue my everyday adventures, and soon it will be a new spring and time to start all over again. I'm determined to make it all fun. I'll talk to you later.

Rolling Around

Why is this horse lying down? The answer is that it's not. It's rolling around in the grass. Just having fun. They all do it from time to time. I guess that's what you do when you're a horse. I think I'd do it too if I was a horse. Looks like fun.

I should have taken a video of the horse rolling around, but in my excitement, it never occurred to me to do it. So what did I do? I just took as many pictures as I could as fast as I could. That's what I always did before.

The worst part about not getting the video was that I missed it all happen twice. After the horse was done rolling on the ground, it got up, shook itself off, and then did it again. It must have felt pretty good the first time.

I've had these pictures for a week and a half. They were ready to post almost right away. I didn't do it because I just can't find the right words to go along with the pictures. So this is what I have. I guess sometimes the pictures are mostly good by themselves. But I really do like saying at least something.

I'll have a little more to say in my next post. And of course, it will be something you'll love. I'll talk to you later.

The Most Sunflowers I've Ever Seen

I found a field with millions of sunflowers. It's just amazing how many there are. I'm sharing the best pictures of them with you. But I'm not sure my pictures can do the enormous number any kind of justice.

I wish everybody could have been there like I was just watching all of these flowers swaying in the breeze. I had my stereo on in my truck and it seemed like the sunflowers were moving to the music. Such a wonderful sight.

You can't see it, but there is a highway behind me here. I had to pull over and stay in my truck to get these pictures. I also had to be quick about it before some other speeding vehicles came by. I had at least a few seconds because I'm still out in the country, but it's a busy highway for being in the country.

I see deer along this same highway almost every day, but I never have time to get any pictures. I also didn't take any close-up pictures of the sunflowers this time. You can click on the pictures to see them better. I'll give you some excellent close-up pictures of sunflowers in the near future though.

I missed my usual Monday post because I was in the hospital having surgery. I won't say anything else other than I'm fine now. I could give you all the disgusting details, but that wouldn't be any fun. So I'll just leave it at that.

Back to the sunflowers. I did get some great video of this bunch of flowers. I'll include it in my next video. I want to put the video together right so you can see the sunflowers swaying to the music just like I saw them. It's not quite ready yet because I've been moving a little slow with everything recently. I hope to have it up soon though. I'll talk to you later.

The Hidden Great Blue Heron

I finally found the prize I was looking for! I found this great blue heron in the same pond that the turtles live in. This was the kind of thing I have been looking for in that pond all along. I just knew one of these birds would return.

The first time I visited this pond I saw a big bird in the water there. I don't remember whether it was a heron or an egret, but I knew I wanted to go back with my camera for one of those big animals. It took me all summer this year, but I finally did it.

This picture above is my first picture of the heron.

What? You don't see it?

I didn't see the bird at first either. I was just taking random pictures of the pond.

Look at the far left of the picture right in the middle. The heron is right behind that clump of tall water weeds. You may have to click the picture to get a better look. Maybe you still can't see it. That's okay, I didn't either.

I finally saw it when it got scared and decided to fly away. These birds don't fly very fast so I was able to get a few pictures of it in flight. It even took me a few seconds before I recovered from being startled from the sudden movement to get the pictures.

Then I had to run to another section of the hidden pond to find out where the bird landed. I had to run past lots of trees that blocked the pond from view. I was surprised that I found the heron again at all. But I got several more pictures after I did.

It took a few minutes for the bird to notice me there furiously taking pictures. But when it did it flew away again to another hidden place in the pond. This time I couldn't find its new destination. That's okay because I got the pictures I wanted. Now this great blue heron will be a worldwide celebrity.

It's taken some time, but I'm finally seeing the animals again. I'm getting acquainted with nature again. The summer is at an end, but there are animals in the winter too. And soon enough warm weather will be back again. I'm ready for it all. I'll talk to you later.

My Cow Friends

Something I haven't really shown you very much is my subject for today. It's cows! I never really think much about them because I see them so much. But not everybody sees very many cows, if any at all.

In the past, I would get close enough to take pictures of a small herd of cows, and just like most animals at the time, they would turn and run away. But I seem to have a better feeling about me this year. These cows looked at me and came closer.

This young lady in the picture above may not have felt as good about me, but she still looked and came closer. I got the feeling that she didn't like my presence very much. She seemed kind of protective of the rest of the herd.

That's something else I've noticed about animals when I'm really one with nature. They are not afraid of me anymore. These cows mostly were not, but they were cautious. So I'm getting my nature mojo back. Soon they'll be trying to get me to come closer. I'll have birds landing on my arms. I just hope they aren't the size of cows when they do. I'll talk to you later.

Alice And The Mushrooms

The mushroom said to Alice, "Come closer, and I will tell you the tale of The Everyday Adventurer."

But when Alice moved closer a rabbit hole opened up and Alice fell in. Down, down, down went Alice past the center of the earth. Alice fell all the way to the other side.

When Alice looked around this new place on the other side of the world she saw another mushroom that looked strangely like the first.

When Alice looked down at it, the mushroom whispered to her, "Come closer and I will tell you about My Journey to get here." Alice was confused, but she liked this new mushroom.

The two mushrooms were brothers from opposite sides of the world.

I'll talk to you later.