７月２５日（日月曜日）２０２２
今度はちょっと珍しい動物が家の前を通っていきました。野生の七面鳥です。オスはメスに比べて2倍ぐらいの大きさで、かなり重そうなコロコロの七面鳥。顔が赤くて、羽が複雑に重なり合って、間近で見るのは初めてです。
七面鳥といえば、アメリカでは１１月末の感謝祭やクリスマスに丸焼きを家族や親戚一同が食卓を囲んで食べるのが恒例ですが、普段でも各部位やひき肉が鶏肉より安くスーパーで売られています。もちろん、それらは大量に飼育されたもので、私たちが見かけるのは丸ごとであっても頭も羽もなく内臓もまとめて袋に入れてスッキリしています。
野生の七面鳥くんたち、そばで見るとかなりグロテスクで怖いぐらいでしたが、カメラを向けると興味があるのかこっちにゆっくりと近づいてきました。もちろん後退りするのは私の方。立派な羽があるけど飛ぶことはもはやできないでしょう。近くの池にカモや他の水鳥たちと一緒に生息して時々こうした遠征をしているのでしょう。このご一行、互いの関係はどうなってるのかなというのが私の素朴な疑問で、当人たちに尋ねてみたい気分でした。
Since there is a little pond near by my house, water birds such as ducks often come up to the road. This time, I saw a very rare animal passing by my house. They were wild turkeys. Male turkeys were almost twice as big as female ones and looked very heavy. Male one's face was red and covered with feathers which overlap complicatedly. It was the first time for me to see them in such a short distance.
When we hear "turkey", we know that people get together with family and eat roasted turkey at the occasion of Thanksgiving or Christmas in the US. We also buy turkey which are separated into parts and eat it regularly. They are less expensive compared to chicken.
Seeing these wild turkeys so vividly made me scared. When I approached to take a photo, a male turkey was coming toward me, so I stepped back. They have gorgeous feathers but I guess they are not able to fly any more. I was wondering what was the relationship within this turkey group and wanted to ask them.
