Hello birders, No rarities to report, just a rather unusual Wild Turkey sighting.
Barb and I took advantage of the warm, sunny weather today and rode our bikes from the Bluff Lake Nature Center northwest along Sand Creek on the Sand Creek bike path to the confluence of Sand Creek and the South. Platte River. An industrial corridor. Barb: “When’s it going to get pretty?” The most birds we saw was at the Denver sewage plant, the effluence at the confluence, the sudsy, sulfurous cascades below the plant. Here there were hundreds of American Wigeon and Northern Shovelers frantically gobbling up whatever was flowing from Denver’s Cloaca Maxima. We biked south on the South Platte River bike path to the spooky necropolis of Riverside Cemetery, home of Augusta Tabor since 1895 and Governor John Evans since 1897. We stopped for a break before heading back. Barb heard some rustling in the leaves below us on the bank. “Turkeys!” There were four adults crouching on the bank next to a King Sooper grocery cart and broken concrete. A passing local bicyclists said he photographed them here in the spring when they were poults and later watched them become jakes and jennies, now Toms and hens. Location here: https://goo.gl/maps/4hxSZ1zcVVuDJQ3r8 It was a strange Thanksgiving tableau, far from Currier & Ives. These turkeys were at home with the sounds, sights, and smells of the Denver sewage plant, the Cherokee coal plant, rumbling coal trains, roaring semis, a homeless encampment, an oil refinery, and a concrete crushing mill. Nature persists, even in difficult conditions, and so may we all this Thanksgiving and in the coming months 'til spring, when the pandemic may finally end. Best, Tom Wilberding Littleton, CO -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/6b295fa0-f557-4d6c-b928-a98a5942ad2bn%40googlegroups.com.
