My grandfather, Dr. J. Murray Speirs, wrote this in 1985: At present the only place in Ontario where you can expect to see Wild Turkeys is in the vicinity of the Ivy Lea bridge between Canada and the U.S.A. Introductions in other parts of southern Ontario have done well for a few years, then petered out.

What a difference over thirty years has made. Sibley Birds calls them common and increasing.

I have often seen them in recent years at Lynde Shores near Whitby which I visited this morning. As soon as I arrived, several came racing towards me hoping to be fed.

A bit later, someone arrived with a bag full of feed.

Other birds:

The call of the Wild Turkey always makes me smile:

MAILBOX

Barred Owl right outside our window at breakfast. He…or she…had been here for several hours. Will go and look for a pellet once it flies 

NATURE POETRY

Black boughs against a pale, clear sky,
Slight mists of cloud-wreaths floating by;
Soft sunlight, gray-blue smoky air,
Wet thawing snows on hillsides bare.           – Emma Lazarus (1849–87)

Miles Hearn