Happy Thanksgiving!

When comparing the Bald Eagle and Wild Turkey, Benjamin Franklin wrote in correspondence with his daughter:

“For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America . . . He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on.”

Based on my limited experience with Turkeys, I cannot disagree that even the domesticated variation does possess some air of pomp.

21 April 2008 at the Rogers Wildlife Rehabilitation Center

And a contemporary comparison is detectable in the pardons of President George W. Bush. He seems to favor the Turkeys over Bald Eagles this Fall. Among his final acts in the executive seat, he has salvaged “Pumpkin” and “Pecan” and pardoned Leslie Owen Collier, the farmer from Charleston, Missouri, who pled guilty to poisoning three Bald Eagles (although it was not his intention to kill any birds, a Red-tailed Hawk and a Great Horned Owl were also included in his Furadan massacre).