Turkey Trot.

Bird News Items

Happy Thanksgiving and thank you (again) for your interest in, and support for, Bird News Items, an affiliate of John Ellis' highly regarded News Items.

We will be off the grid this weekend but back Saturday, December 7 ("a date which will live in infamy" -FDR).

Given its Thanksgiving, there really is only one bird to focus on. But first, Robert Louis Stevenson's wonderful Thanksgiving poem:

"We thank thee.."

Lord, behold our family here assembled.
We thank Thee for this place in which we dwell;
for the love that unites us;
for the peace accorded us this day;
for the hope with which we expect the morrow;
for the health, the work, the food, and the bright skies,
that make our lives delightful;
and for our friends in all parts of the earth.
Let peace abound in our small company.

Purge out of every heart the lurking grudge.
Give us grace and strength to forbear and to persevere.
Give us the grace to accept and to forgive offenders.
Forgetful ourselves, help us to bear cheerfully
      the forgetfulness of others.
Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind.
Spare to us our friends, soften to us our enemies.

Bless us, if it may be, in all our innocent endeavors.
If it may not, give us the strength to encounter
      that which is to come,
that we be brave in peril, constant in tribulation,
      temperate in wrath,
and in all changes of fortune, and, down to the gates of death,
      loyal and loving one to another.

By Hap Ellis, Wild Turkey - Arnold Arboretum, Boston, MA (April 2024)

The first Thanksgiving - 1621:

In November 1621, after the Pilgrims' first corn harvest proved successful, Governor William Bradford organized a celebratory feast and invited a group of the fledgling colony's Native American allies, including the Wampanoag chief Massasoit. Now remembered as America's "first Thanksgiving"-although the Pilgrims themselves may not have used the term at the time-the festival lasted for three days. While no record exists of the first Thanksgiving's exact menu, much of what we know about what happened at the first Thanksgiving comes from Pilgrim chronicler Edward Winslow, who wrote:
"Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruits of our labors; they four in one day killed as much fowl, as with a little help beside, served the Company almost a week, at which time amongst other Recreations, we exercised our Arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five Deer, which they brought to the Plantation and bestowed on our Governor, and upon the Captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful, as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plenty." (via History)

Ben Franklin and the Wild Turkey:

There's a story that Benjamin Franklin thought the turkey should be the national bird instead of the eagle. In a 1784 letter addressed to Sarah, his daughter, Franklin wrote:
"For my own part I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as 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, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the labour 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 bald eagle pursues him, and takes it from him. . . . the turkey is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America." (via Live Science)

But did he want it to become the national bird? The Franklin Institute says "no": “About the turkey, Franklin wrote that in comparison to the bald eagle, the turkey is "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." So, although Benjamin Franklin defended the honor of the turkey against the bald eagle, he did not propose it become one of America's most important symbols.” (via The Franklin Institute)

By Hap Ellis, Wild Turkey - Arnold Arboretum, Boston, MA (April 2021)

Pardons

And just when did U.S. Presidents get in the habit of issuing "Presidential pardons" for turkeys? USA Today offers an illustrated history.

Did you know?

In the early 1500s, European explorers brought home Wild Turkeys from Mexico, where native people had domesticated the birds centuries earlier. Turkeys quickly became popular on European menus thanks to their large size and rich taste from their diet of wild nuts. Later, when English colonists settled on the Atlantic Coast, they brought domesticated turkeys with them. Check out "Cool Facts" about turkeys here.

Finally: Status and Trends for the Wild Turkey (if you're interested).

By Hap Ellis, Wild Turkey(s) — Kennebunkport, ME (April, 2021).

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HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

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