Strutus Interuptus

Have I told you lately how much I'm enjoying my training for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer?  There are so many reasons to love it I can't list them all here.  I am getting loads of quality Me Time and a giant infusion of upbeat Disco, 80s and Lovely Lady Lumps/Baby Got Backish music from my iPod.  Plus there's the whole pre-summer tan thing I have going on...  which, by the way, is good for me because Vitamin D is good for me and every other woman in the world.  Did you know there is an association with breast cancer and low Vitamin D levels???  Just sayin'.  There's also the photo opportunities.  Oh, the photo opportunities!!!  That's a post or twenty in and of itself.  Plus, I'm outside.  In nature.  With wildlife.  I'm appreciating this in ways I never have before.

Every day I am bombarded by nature: blooming wildflowers, budding trees, nest-building birds of every feather and largish rodents by the many, many dozens.  I routinely see rabbits and ground squirrels in a panic-induced sprint at the mere sight of me walking their way.  It's laughable, really, because if I'm so all fired scary, why do they always run completely across my path to get away from me?  Also, they're just too Chip n' Dale-y not to laugh out loud when I see them. 

Today my walk took me by two different gangs of turkeys.  Apparently it's wild turkey breeding season around here because each gang had 4-6 females and a single male trying mightily to impress them.  I wish I'd had my camera.  The males were really strutting their stuff.  Their body feathers were all puffed up making their heads look all itty bitty.  Their giant fan-like tails were proudly unfurled while they each sauntered up and down the roadway in front of the females.  The females, on the other hand, were busy scratching at the ground looking for whatever it is turkeys eat. 

I found it immensely amusing to see the males slowly shrink back down to size as I approached.  I passed each gang twice.  Every time it was the same thing...  strutting guy-turkey showing his wares, hens busy with dinner, irritated male glares while suffering from visible shrinkage and slinks off the road.  It was strutus interuptus at its finest.