Our excitement about the turkeys we saw on the crittercam video was exceeded on Saturday when we saw them with our own eyes. We were out for a morning walk to collect grass specimens for identification.  (More on that later.)  Bibi was ahead of me a ways, noticing another of the deer paths that crisscross this place.  When I caught up to her I recognized the spot as the place where I had found stripped-clean bleached-white deer bones two years ago.  (I’ll show them to you another time.)  As we stand there surveying the area, Bibi points and whispers “turkeys!”  And there, through the brush and grasses, we could see a small group of the birds.  I don’t know how many there were; it was difficult to make them out through the understory growth.  Maybe 5 or 6.

Quietly and eagerly we followed them.  Where are they going? Where did they come from? Do they roost around here somewhere? They made their way up to Redbud Hill and then down into the ravine and up the other side.  We couldn’t follow without scaring the daylights out of them, but here are a couple of photos I was able to snap.

The second photo was taken in the very place I first saw the bobwhites.  Must be a very special place in more ways than we had thought.