Each morning right about 6:00 a.m. you will find me coming through the gate at Brown’s Ravine with my 3 dogs in the back of my SUV on our way to enjoy a 3 mile run and then a 30 minute swim. We check in with Ivy who is the main gate keeper. Last Saturday, it was business as usual. As I drove into the park, I noticed the regular groups of hen turkeys with their poults. On any given morning, there are at least 2 to 3 groups and some days as many as 40 birds near the entry. (It has been a banner year for the turkey hatch.) I drove on up to the Kiosk and as I started chatting with Ivy, I looked in my rear view mirror and saw a coyote sneaking across the road looking towards the hens and poults. I pointed it out to Ivy and he grabbed his camera and started snapping photos. What happened next I had never seen and would not have believed unless I saw it with my own two eyes.
As the coyote licked his chops in anticipation of a turkey dinner, the hens spotted him and opposed to herding their families away from the danger, they came together with the hens in front and their off-spring in tow and formed a Turkey-Wall and took that coyote on. The confused coyote did not know what to do; after all, he was supposed to be the preditor. He paced back and forth on the road as the mass of birds approached and then finally bolted seeking higher ground away from the oncoming battle. I’m sure you are all saying, yeah, sure! Well they say a picture is worth a 1000 words, so here are 3 pictures and I need not really say another word!
Except: I will share with you an exchange between my 7 year-old granddaughter, Maggy and myself earlier this year. Whenever she comes to spend the night, we get up at dawn and she joins me and the dogs for our morning route. On one occasion as we were walking along she asked, “Grandma, why to you always get up so early?” I responded “Because I get to see things that nobody else ever sees!” – Well almost nobody….just those of us who head out into the great outdoors at dawn.
All you early birds out there keep doing what you do, it is what helps us take on the day. And if you are thinking about buying or selling real estate I would be honored to put my 42 years of experience to work for you and prove that experience is not expensive, it is priceless!
# posted by
Viki Benbow @ 12:34 PM
