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Driving down to New Jersey this morning, I had just passed the New Boston Inn right on Route 8 South and lo and behold, a very large wild turky decided to cross the road, for a few seconds I felt as if I were playing a game of chicken with the wild turkey as to who had the right of way, but in the end the wild turkey won and I slowed down really quickly to allow her to cross the road safely. She was alone, she must have been an older bird because she was very large in size. I am more used to seeing two or three smaller females leading their flocks of baby turkeys across small town roads being so cute in single file. To this day I have yet to see a Tom turkey, though I am always on the look out. Funny enough when my husband said “that was a close one” I replied “yes we could have had a turkey dinner tonight”. He didn’t find that funny, I guess that joke only works on our kids, they appreciate the French dark humor of being at the top of the food chain.
I think that it was about ten years at that very spot that I had seen my first black bear. I got so excited that I slowed down to a crawl and called out to the kds to look on their left, our daughter had the chance to get a look, but our son had missed the bear, he had turned towards the woods and retreated away from the road before our son could get a good look. Another time, I got excited over a blue crane running alongside the car and taking off in flight, the kids saw that one. There once had been a gorgeous fox crossing the road, but the kids missed him, his tail was a thing of beauty, I remember it well.
I do love living somewhere where you never know what kind of wildlife you might run into, iit is very humbling in my eyes, it reminds me that this place is not just for me, it has to be shared fairly and sustainably with all living things.
laurieanichols 