Turkey Trot

Everybody say, "Turkey Trot."

Everybody say, "Turkeys. Gobble Gobble Gobble Gobble."

Everybody say, "Turkey Trot."

One of the field trips for Utah County Birders is the annual Turkey Trot in November where birders get together to go find wild turkeys. Obviously that wasn't going to happen this year. We birders, however, were encouraged to go on our own to find those turkeys so one afternoon our family took a drive to Diamond Fork Canyon to look for turkeys. Jeremy mentioned that he always finds turkeys there. No such luck this time. The trip wasn't a waste, though, because Jr. Jr. made up a story game for us to do while we were out. We each got to pick characters and help each other out on an adventure. It was fun family time.

 

The day after Thanksgiving, we decided to search for turkeys again. This time we went up South Fork Road toward and past Big Springs since we often see turkeys up there. Well, we did see turkeys. We had to look at them through trees and couldn't get a good look at them, though, so that was kind of disappointing.

 

We decided to continue trying, though. Since we were already in Provo Canyon, we tried up toward Sundance. We made it all the way up to the trailhead for Mt Timpanogos (the road was closed after that) without seeing any turkeys (just the ones in the van) so we headed back down and continued on.

 

Next we headed to Payson Canyon where Jeremy had success with turkeys recently. He told us of a field where he had seen a bunch of turkeys. Sure enough when we reached that field, there were over twenty turkeys that we were able to take pictures of. Most of them decided to go for a walk and crossed the road in front of us.

 

Lucky had been disappointed that we didn't see the turkeys very well up South Fork and we realized that he had fallen asleep and missed these turkeys. In the same general area we were looking at Lewis's woodpeckers (and other birds) when Lucky woke up. 

We decided to turn around and see if we could see any of the turkeys that had stayed behind. We could see a couple but they were pretty far back among the trees on the other side of the pasture. We drove back toward where the turkeys had crossed the road in case any of them were still near enough to see. Woohoo. We found some and four or five came up toward the road again so Lucky was able to see them. At one point while watching the turkeys with their heads up, Nichole mentioned how they may be looking at the turkeys up on the hill. What? We looked and there was a group of turkeys on the hill and another group and another group and so on. 

 

We still had some turkeys come up to the road again so we (mostly Nichole) could get more pictures of them up close.

 

Don't worry. The van was turned off and we were parked off the road.

 

So in this spot Jeremy counted over a hundred turkeys and those were just the ones he could see (there were probably more hiding in the brush). The turkeys probably felt that since Thanksgiving was over, it was safe for them to be seen.

Turkey Trot success!

Speaking of turkeys and Thanksgiving, I am thankful for my turkeys, all six of them. I appreciate Jeremy cooking the one we ate and preparing most of the rest of the food. I appreciate Lucky helping peel eggs for deviled eggs. I appreciate those who helped with the baby so I could help in the kitchen. I appreciate those that helped prepare the last of the food so I could talk to my parents and some of my siblings and their turkeys on a video call. I appreciate that mine had fun making faces with their food. 

I appreciate that we had food and lots of leftovers. I appreciate recognizing where blessings come from.

I also appreciate this adorable onesie that our birding friend, Machelle, stitched and gave us last Winter that Jet can now wear (he wore it on our successful turkey trot). She's the only birding friend who has held (or seen in person) Jet since she came to visit pre-pandemic.