March 18, 2010

On my morning bike ride to work, I labored at my most strenuous section of the route as I always do. It is a strip of road where Island Drive turns into Inner Drive. It does not look like much of anything to the eye, but the illusion unfolds as you proceed for about a half-mile of continuous grade that plateaus twice. One of the plateaus is near a public swimming pool. It is just beyond the pool that I encountered a flock of turkeys crossing the road. It caught me by surprise, and even more to my surprise when one of the turkeys, whom I thought were all hens, transformed into a tom and began to chase me on my bike. At first, I wondered what I would do to defend myself, as anyone who has ever encountered one of these birds before knows that they can be fearless and aggressive, however, before the thought could finish, the tom was on his way with the hens.

Later in the Cap Times, there was an article on a turkey colliding with a Badger bus on the interstate, smashing into its windshield, and resulting in the bus having to be replaced and returned for repairs.

I saw my first robin today.