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turkey surprise
2023-11-23 18:45This post comes with a photo album.
No turkey at home today, just fried chicken, sausages, falafel, ham, and salmon. I don't miss turkey, the main reason it's popular is that a whole turkey is the cheapest way to feed meat to a larger family.
But I went for a walk and, after hardly seeing them for many months, almost immediately ran into the Albany turkey flock. I counted 22 of them. Watched them strut around, pecking at food in people's front yards. Mostly bugs I guess, though one turkey was attacking an apple.
I wasn't the only one hanging around to watch the birds; a couple of Asian women were as well, squatting on their heels in a way I still can't do comfortably.
Moving on, my "pay visual attention to the world" project had me noticed the bike infrastructure on Marin. While still far short of a protected bike path, they have tried to go beyond the most minimal painted bike lane. There are stripes on the inside edge of the lane, presumably meant to keep cars from parking sloppily and also to keep bikes from riding to close to door-zone cars. A car lane ends, and plastic bollards keep merging cars, or cars coming out of curbside parking, from being too sloppy. Further on, more plastic bollards keep cars from hugging the corner of an intersection.
I also have a couple photos of interesting house architecture.
Not shown are features of Solano Ave, the local "ye olde main street". Most of the intersections have bulb-outs, so a pedestrian only has to cross the width two traffic lanes -- no parking or turn lanes in the way. Most of the parking is diagonal, which I realized narrows the street compared to parallel parking, and probably also makes drivers nervous about cars suddenly backing up out of parking, thus slowing traffic down two different way.
And finally, at dusk, I discovered that wild turkeys are roosting birds. I ran across the flock again (well, a flock, but I bet it's the same), on the Ohlone path. I'd known before that they actually can fly, I've seen one on on a roof, and even seen them fly into trees in this exact spot. But back then, it was just a couple of birds.
This time, bird after bird seemed to work up the energy or courage to take off, some of them flying over the elevated BART line, and into the trees, until we had gone from most turkeys on the ground to most turkeys on the trees. I tried taking a few photos, first backlit by the sunset and then from the side, but none are great. Still, you can make them out. Presumably they mean to perch there overnight, which for the size and ungainliness of these birds, is impressive. Presumably they are good at not falling out in their sleep.
I realized that they might choose this spot because it lets them cheat by working up some height, too. On the footpath, facing north, trees are to your left, and to your right is a little rise of dirt, and beyond (and above) it someone's fence. The first birds I saw fly tonight had hopped up onto the fence first. Many of the rest took off from the rise, or ran down it with their wings open before taking off.
No turkey at home today, just fried chicken, sausages, falafel, ham, and salmon. I don't miss turkey, the main reason it's popular is that a whole turkey is the cheapest way to feed meat to a larger family.
But I went for a walk and, after hardly seeing them for many months, almost immediately ran into the Albany turkey flock. I counted 22 of them. Watched them strut around, pecking at food in people's front yards. Mostly bugs I guess, though one turkey was attacking an apple.
I wasn't the only one hanging around to watch the birds; a couple of Asian women were as well, squatting on their heels in a way I still can't do comfortably.
Moving on, my "pay visual attention to the world" project had me noticed the bike infrastructure on Marin. While still far short of a protected bike path, they have tried to go beyond the most minimal painted bike lane. There are stripes on the inside edge of the lane, presumably meant to keep cars from parking sloppily and also to keep bikes from riding to close to door-zone cars. A car lane ends, and plastic bollards keep merging cars, or cars coming out of curbside parking, from being too sloppy. Further on, more plastic bollards keep cars from hugging the corner of an intersection.
I also have a couple photos of interesting house architecture.
Not shown are features of Solano Ave, the local "ye olde main street". Most of the intersections have bulb-outs, so a pedestrian only has to cross the width two traffic lanes -- no parking or turn lanes in the way. Most of the parking is diagonal, which I realized narrows the street compared to parallel parking, and probably also makes drivers nervous about cars suddenly backing up out of parking, thus slowing traffic down two different way.
And finally, at dusk, I discovered that wild turkeys are roosting birds. I ran across the flock again (well, a flock, but I bet it's the same), on the Ohlone path. I'd known before that they actually can fly, I've seen one on on a roof, and even seen them fly into trees in this exact spot. But back then, it was just a couple of birds.
This time, bird after bird seemed to work up the energy or courage to take off, some of them flying over the elevated BART line, and into the trees, until we had gone from most turkeys on the ground to most turkeys on the trees. I tried taking a few photos, first backlit by the sunset and then from the side, but none are great. Still, you can make them out. Presumably they mean to perch there overnight, which for the size and ungainliness of these birds, is impressive. Presumably they are good at not falling out in their sleep.
I realized that they might choose this spot because it lets them cheat by working up some height, too. On the footpath, facing north, trees are to your left, and to your right is a little rise of dirt, and beyond (and above) it someone's fence. The first birds I saw fly tonight had hopped up onto the fence first. Many of the rest took off from the rise, or ran down it with their wings open before taking off.
