As we were headed out our driveway for a walk around our “neighborhood” (the ranch and ski resort – we don’t exactly have a lot of human neighbors), we disturbed a small flock of 4 adult turkeys. Startled, they first ran, and then flew – the rare turkey flight.

This is going to be interesting.

For those of you who do not have wild turkeys, you should be aware that they are not very graceful in flight. Their big wings beat hard at the air to get them to lift a few inches off of the ground. The end effect is this half run, half flight, which never fails to amuse The Herd.

This time, we startled them so much that they all 4 tried to fly – 3 in that close to the ground run/flight we mentioned. The 4th, however, got some serious air and was at least 30 feet in the air – when he clipped the top of a tree with a loud of crash. He then did a crashing, somersaulting dive through the tree and, amazingly, landed upright on his feet and kept running.

Nature – it is not always pretty. But The Herd was utterly amused.