It's The Season of Love!

For turkeys, that is. The wild turkeys around here start getting amorous in mid February (yes, Valentine's Day), and they carry on well into April, the toms strutting their stuff for all to see. Until I moved to the mountains of western North Carolina, I'd never seen a wild turkey up close in any circumstance, much less during their remarkable mating display. I have to give them credit - it's quite a show. The tom turkey's head turns blue, his wattle (a word I didn't know before moving here) turns bright red, he puffs out his chest, and fans out those magnificent tail feathers. Then he'll drop his wings and begin strutting back and forth in a most dignified manner. The sound made by his wings scraping on a hard surface is much louder than you'd think possible. Oh, and that hairy little beard thing that hangs off his chest - how strange is that? He really puts on quite a show.

All right, now forgive me if you've seen these photos before, but they're the ones best suited to give you a proper visual image of the show. Hopefully you all know the Right Said Fred song "I'm Too Sexy." Please sing along as you scroll down and view the photos below...

I'm too sexy for my love too sexy for my love
Love's going to leave me
I'm too sexy for my shirt too sexy for my shirt 
So sexy it hurts

And I'm too sexy for your party
Too sexy for your party
No way I'm disco dancing

I'm a model you know what I mean

And I do my little turn on the catwalk
Yeah on the catwalk on the catwalk yeah
I do my little turn on the catwalk

Tomorrow, a post about the outcome of all this carrying on, and the story of my misguided if well intentioned effort to help a mama turkey...