Guyette & Deeter Auction, 22 April 2016, Lot 483, A turkey call hand-made circa 1950 by famous Outdoor Writer and Poet Laureate of South Carolina Archibald Rutledge.
Estimate: US $1,250.00 – US $1,750.00 — Opening Bid: $650.00
Archibald Rutledge was heir to Hampton Plantation, Poet Laureate of South Carolina, and the direct descendant of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, a governor of South Carolina, and a Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court. He published numerous articles on hunting and the out-of-doors in Field & Stream, Outdoor Life, and similar serial publications, as well as close to 40 books. He taught English for many years at Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania.
University of Minnesota Hospital in Minneapolis look on during lunchtime show as a wild turkey chases a UPS driver around a FedEx truck and back to his own brown vehicle.
During the Blue Ridge Hunt’s Thanksgiving Meet yesterday, which started at Long Branch, hounds put up an enormous wild turkey near Bellfield off Swift Shoals Road. Karen managed to shoot a photo of the departing Tom.
We live on top of the Blue Ridge, a narrow 1500′ (457.2m.) high mountain separating the Virginia Piedmont from the Shenandoah Valley, at the very northern end of Virginia.
This morning, around 7:30 AM EDT, I happened to look out of the rear window of our second floor hallway, and saw walking purposefully from north to south across our backyard directly behind the house a fully-grown black bear (Ursus americanus).
That was as close as I’ve ever seen a bear outside captivity.
Yesterday, in the afternoon, I saw in the same yard two hen turkeys supervising either end of a long line of very small turkey poults. There were more than a dozen baby turkeys. Apparently, two mothers were walking their offspring together, keeping them under close control like a pair of elementary school teachers on a science tour.
Some wild turkeys, it appears, were trying to get out of New Jersey before Thanksgiving Day.
A spokesman for the NJ Transit said train officials reported a dozen or so wild turkeys waiting on a station platform in Ramsey, about 20 miles northwest of New York City, on Wednesday afternoon. The line travels to Suffern, N.Y.
“For a moment, it looked like the turkeys were waiting for the next outbound train,” said Dan Stessel, a spokesman for NJ Transit. “Clearly, they’re trying to catch a train and escape their fate.”
Transit workers followed the bird’s movements on surveillance cameras. “I have no idea how they got there,” Stessel said.
A Ramsey police dispatcher said the department had received three calls about the traveling turkeys who also were blamed for causing morning rush hour traffic problems on a roadway.
“From time to time, I’ve heard calls that there are turkeys on the loose,” said Erik Endress, president of the Ramsey Rescue Squad, a volunteer group. “Maybe they’re trying to make a break.”
