Friday, November 27, 2009

"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."

You know, this is a great line on a great show, but it has caused one relatively unimportant but irritating unintended consequence:



It taught a couple of generations of city folks that turkeys are flightless birds.

See, the thing is, turkeys can fly. That's why the domestic ones get their wing feathers clipped, I suppose--I don't know. All I know is that I can take you out to the woods and sit you down under a tree where turkeys are roosted, and when dawn comes, you'll see them fly down.

They're not always graceful, and they make an awful racket, but I promise you that turkeys can fly.

6 comments:

Thirdpower said...

Most domestics can't fly. They're to fat.

We used to have a good sized flock of wild ones living near here. Walking through the woods w/ several dozen turkeys above you was bizarre.

Ambulance Driver said...

Don't know how far they can sustain flight, but it's certainly far enough to get out of sight in the woods.

And they're so hard to bring down on the wing that you might as well not even try.

Keith said...

My dog considers them to be cheaters.

Jay G said...

Believe me, I know they can fly. Dirty f*ckers roost on my kids' swingset.

You have any idea how much guano those things produce?

jimbob86 said...

"All I know is that I can take you out to the woods and sit you down under a tree where turkeys are roosted"

....... lemmee fix that for ya:

...... startle them awake, and they will make a helluva racket and rain turkey crap on you and yours.

Don't ask me how I know..... a 15 to 25 pound bird has rather large droppings, and when there are 100+ in the flock, the impact area is rather large, too.

They are strong fliers, capable of vertical take-offs (in standing corn!)..... which I find amazing, for birds that big.

As for how long they can sustain flight, Ihave seen them go the better part of a mile.

Jay- they ARE tasty...... just sayin' .......

The Freeholder said...

A friend of mine tangled with one that had decided to roost in his tree stand one night. At the end of the escapade, he decided to hunt another stand for a while that day.

Not only can they fly, but they can beat the crap out of you!