The calendar says spring begins March 20th. A change in the slant of the sunlight is beginning to announce the arrival of longer hours of daylight.

The little TV in the kitchen went out last night, so we watched the morning weather forecast in the living room. This room looks out over the farm fields south of our house. A movement out the window drew Dean’s eyes from the TV. Big, dark spots were moving out in the field!

There’s something out there! The binoculars come out. We see there are 8 big birds picking their way through the wheat stubble—they’re wild turkeys! It looks like they’re going to head across the bean stubble. (Stubble is the stem part of the plant that’s left after the grains were harvested last fall.)

We watch them move across the field. Maybe the turkeys are heading to the pond in the pasture for a drink. We go back to watching the weather report. Weather reports give us important information for planning the day as we start spring fieldwork.

When we look out again, the turkeys have surprised us and changed direction. They move fast! They’re right in our front yard, not 20 feet away from the house!! They look much larger close up than when I’ve seen them out in the fields! I run for the camera and VERY slowly ease the door open to get some good pictures to record what we see.

When the turkeys do spot me, they move quickly into the pine windbreak. I go to the kitchen to prepare breakfast. As I work, I glance out the north window. I see the turkeys are there, out on the driveway behind the house. Can you guess what they’re eating? Would you believe they’re picking up bits of gravel and tiny rocks? DO MOST BIRDS do that? I remember the chickens we used to have did this and I’ve seen birds on the roads that seem to be picking at the gravel. I think they use the gravel to grind up the food that they eat.

There are 5 females and 3 males. One male seems larger. Perhaps he’s older. I grab my camera again and try to sneak around the house to take more pictures. When a little sparrow flies away, it alerts the turkeys. I just get one picture before they take off for the windbreak again. They move with surprising agility and quickness. What a wonderful surprise to begin this gorgeous spring day.

We watched the fields for several mornings, but didn’t sight the turkeys again. When I look out the window, I see the robins announcing spring. A downy woodpecker joins them on the front lawn where we saw those turkeys.