Happy “Turkey Day” from the BBB… Out West!

Hey everybody! If you’re wondering where in the world I’ve been, here’s your answer: The West! The Wild West, to be exact! The state of Utah, to be even more exact! I come here this time every year to celebrate a traditional Mormon Thanksgiving! It’s kinda nice here, but I just wish they’d build more stores and other places to go, because there’s really nothing out here besides canyons and red rocks and stuff. There aren’t even that many trees since it’s all dry and deserty, which is a bummer for me, since trees are where birds are found!

Landscapes like this are sorta pretty and all, but they really make me homesick for that beautiful gray Pittsburgh shale, and all my favorite stores like Circuit City. Plus, the bright desert sun makes it impossible to take a respectable squint-free selfie.

Anyway, allow me to “give” a big “thanks” to all you BBB fans out there! (Get it? It’s Thanksgiving!) Like all birders, I refuse to ever eat birds, except for this one time of year when it’s socially acceptable to eat a turkey. However, I take this more seriously than most, as I will only eat a turkey that I’ve caught and killed myself, and even then, it must be done naturally and organically, so I must only kill it with my bare hands. With that in mind, I woke up at the crack of dawn this morn, set a DVR to record the always enthralling Macy’s parade so I could see all the bird-related balloons like Woodstock from Peanuts, and then went out in search of my Thanksgiving feast!

As you probably know, turkeys are closely related to roadrunners, and so their natural habitat is roads and highways. And like roadrunners, turkeys too are one of the fastest land birds on earth.

That little bugger in the photograph above really gave me a “run” for my money, as I chased him straight down the road for half a mile before I became too out of breath for further pursuit, and he saved his own life by getting away! If only I’d had some ACME rocket shoes! Ha ha, just kidding, ACME isn’t a real company! Anyway, all the turkeys I found just ran right away from me like this, and all the other birds I found just flew up into the sky where I couldn’t get them, so I came away empty-handed. Well, I guess it’s only yams and pumpkin pie for me this year! Good thing I’ve got such sweet teeth! 😉

I figured I could at least kill and eat this big ugly vulture, but then I saw the tag on the wing and realized this is probably somebody’s pet. It made me consider how sad I’d feel if somebody ate my dog Huck for Thanksgiving, so I decided I should probably leave it alone.

So, that’s about it for my Thanksgiving adventures, sorry. I’ll be out West for the next week or two, so maybe by then I’ll have seen some interesting birds out in this lifeless boring desert, and I can write a proper ‘Burgher Birder Blog all about ‘em next time. For now, however, I just wanted to express my thankfulness for all 13 of my blog followers! (As for the rest of you, did you happen to notice that “Follow” button to the right? Or the one that says “Follow blog by email? Why don’t you click on them, see what happens?) Mostly, I guess I just wanted to write a little about the true meaning of Thanksgiving: food!

This makes it two years in a row in which I’ve been unsuccessful in my annual T-giving turkey hunt. At least last year I was able to catch this great horned owl, which tasted just about the same as turkey. (When eating owls, be careful not to choke on their pellets!)

What am I most thankful for, you ask? Well that’s an easy one: birds, of course!