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From: sandee@sun16.scri.fsu.edu (Daan Sandee)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: OUTDOOR: Wild turkeys?
Message-ID: <2229@sun13.scri.fsu.edu>
Date: 13 Feb 91 14:20:33 GMT
References: <144605@pyramid.pyramid.com> <1991Feb12.233152.16610@mailer.cc.fsu.edu>
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In article <1991Feb12.233152.16610@mailer.cc.fsu.edu> svihla@evax2.eng.fsu.edu writes:
>
> Thanks for the replies thus far to my original post.  The light areas on the
>birds bodies *were* white - the sun was almost down and wasn't directly on them,
>so I'm pretty sure of the color.  I conferred again with my brother - he
>estimated that their wing span was maybe five or six feet and we both tend to
>think that the neck as well as the head was red.  The birds flew with extended
>necks, I think, and their wing beats were fairly rapid.  I checked and found
>out that both turkeys and turkey vultures are relatively plentiful in the area
>near where we were.  Does any of this information confirm or refute my guess
>that the UFO's were, in fact, turkeys?

The extended neck makes it clear : turkeys. TV's don't have much of a neck
to extend, and anyway the neck isn't red.
The most obvious distinction is the way they fly. TV's are excellent flyers,
and even if you flushed them and they were getting away at low altitude, they
make a good job of it. They look like enormous crows with an efficient wing
beat. Turkeys, on the other hand, like all chicken-like birds, are clumsy
fliers. They're fat birds that always fly like they have a problem staying up.

As far as probability goes : both are quite possible flying across a river
in a wooded area here in the Panhandle. Turkeys prefer more cover, though.

Daan Sandee                                           sandee@sun16.scri.fsu.edu
Supercomputer Computations Research Institute
Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4052  (904) 644-7045