Let’s Talk Turkey

Congress debated for 6 years before naming the bald eagle as the symbol of our country. And though there doesn’t seem to be a congressional record of his opposition, Ben Franklin shared his views with his daughter Sarah Bache in a January 26, 1784 letter:

“For my own part I wish the Eagle had not been chosen the representative of our country. He is a bird of bad moral character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead tree near the river, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the labor of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a fish, and is bearing it to his nest for the support of his mate and young ones, the Eagle pursues him and takes it from him.
With all this injustice, he is never in good case but like those among men who live by sharping & robbing he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides he is a rank coward: The little King Bird not bigger than a Sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of the district. He is therefore by no means a proper emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America who have driven all the King birds from our country…
I am on this account not displeased that the figure is not known as a Eagle, but looks more like a Turkey. For the Truth the Turkey is in comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original native of America… He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a bird of courage, and would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his farm yard with a red coat on.”

“And the point?” you ask.  A little background:

This month has been full of firsts for me. I made several marmalade recipes for the first time, three of my art quilts won awards and now. . . are you ready? . . .while out on the morning ritual walk with the boys we noticed a wild turkey on our neighbor’s roof. At first sighting he was on the front edge of the roof.  When the camera came out he became shy and ducked behind the chimney. See him?

He was curious about us but we had to pretend we were stalking a rare song bird to capture these images. Eventually he moved a bit.

We thought we had captured about all the images we were going to and resumed our walk. This heightened his curiosity. He moved away from the chimney and began moving on the roof so he could keep us in his sights.

We walked to the end of the block and started down hill. Mr. Tom kept us in his view.

When we returned, the turkey was gone. We suspect that he lives in the wooded area at the end of our block. This gives us hope that we’ll see this “respectable bird and true native American” in the future.