Gobble-Gobble-Diddle-Ip

Caught this fella doing the 'turkey trot' in Boondall Wetlands recently. The Australian brushturkey is normally found in rainforest and wetland areas, but has also been driven into the suburbs by man's destruction of his natural habitat. We have a couple where we live in the outskirts of Brisbane, and they can be noisy little buggers when they fly onto our roof.  Their attempts at short flight are about as graceful as Miss Piggy in a tutu taking ballet lessons. 

There are also a few in the grounds of our office compound near the Central Business District, which is a long way from the bush. They can be quite destructive in gardens, as they love to build mound-nests up to 1.5 m (5 ft) high, from leaf litter and mulch, and they certainly make a mess in the garden strips around the office.  

You can see the attraction that these curious creatures have for suburban gardens, where there aren't many natural predators, except for the odd unleashed dog and the occasional irate gardener.

I bet this guy's glad that he doesn't live in Canada or the US right now.

Happy Thanksgiving to all our North American Bees!

Here's a clip, by the way, of Little Eva's 'Turkey Trot' which inspired the heading for this post.

The author of the above, Ken Boddie, besides being a sometime poet and occasional writer, is an enthusiastic photographer, rarely leisure-travelling without his Canon, and loves to interact with other like-minded people with diverse interests.

Ken's three day work week (part time commitment) as a consulting engineer allows him to follow his photography interests, and to plan trips to an ever increasing list of countries and places of scenic beauty and cultural diversity.