How To Choose A Thanksgiving Turkey - Urban Wildlife Chronicles

Step 1: Find Turkey Aisle
Step 2: Proceed Slowly down aisle examining prospective turkeys
Step 3: See if any one turkey in particular presents self
Step 4: Enjoy your Thanksgiving Turkey

*Note - no turkeys were physically harmed in the making of this movie. Emotionally, I'm not so sure.


On a side note, you may notice that some of the turkeys in the flock are a little smaller than the rest.  I believe these are the young of the year, which we met at a day or two old in The Fledglings Part Deux.  

The Towhee and the Hare?

Ginny Fifield caught this hilarious video of interspecies interaction with her camera trap set in west Marin.  Take a look and please let me know what you think this Jackrabbit is doing.  I believe that the bird in the video is a California Towhee.

Jackrabbit chasing off the rufus ruffians - Credit: Ginny Fifield

"This is a unique (and funny) video of a jackrabbit chasing birds. Other than the exhibited behavior of chasing birds, I'm not sure what the intention is. Is it just the "fun" of chasing or does it actually intend to catch the bird? And, if it does catch the bird, what will the jackrabbit do with it? This video was taken on 8-13-2011 @ 0826h." - Ginny

At first I thought that this may be a mother defending young nearby, but this species supposedly does not protect young like that.  

References:

http://www.mnh.si.edu/mna/image_info.cfm?species_id=137

http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/animals/mammal/leca/all.html