NESTING

Yesterday afternoon, after delivering information about next year's Evergreen Arts & Humanities programs to potential donors and sponsors, Tom J. and I headed to the local Mexican restaurant, had a couple of pre-Cinco de Mayo margaritas, and came back to the farm. To balance the caloric intake of the margaritas, we decided to take a walk to the back of the field, and shortly after we entered the woods, the corgis flushed a turkey. We watched it fly across the small ravine to the other side of the creek, checked out the thousands of MayApples that are in bloom, and headed back to the field.

When we were just out of the woods, Annie came up to me with something in her mouth. I bent down to see what she had, and very, very gently, she dropped a beautiful beige speckled egg in my hand. About that time, Molly came out of the woods with one in her mouth. Evidently after Mama Turkey had taken flight, the girls found the nest and brought the eggs to me to care for.

(Thank you, Annie and Molly! I have all the time in the world to raise two turkey fledglings! eergh!)

Unable to locate the nest and feeling somewhat distressed that two little turkeys wouldn't make it if I didn't do something, I placed the eggs down in my athletic bra close to my chest and headed back to the house. (Aside: I had a rather whop-sided looking chest as we trekked back up the path. Turkey eggs are not much smaller than goose eggs, and I had them snuggled down between my breasts.)

After google-ing how to incubate wild bird eggs, I fear they haven't been warm enough in the nest of grass I made in a large gourd bowl, so now I've covered the makeshift nest with a wool shawl I knitted this winter and placed a heating pad under the bowl. Hopefully, it's not too late.

I'm headed back to the woods in just a minute in hopes of finding the nest again. If I don't, I'll leave a large sign for Mama Turkey near the spot, assuring her that her eggs are being cared for with lots of human love and asking her to please come get them. I'll be glad to relinquish the caretaking responsibility. (I've called Julie Zickefoose, our local caretaker for abandoned wildlife, to see if she'd like to take on a couple of turkey eggs, and of course, she's not at home. By the way, check out Julie's website and blog. She's an amazing naturalist, mom, artist, author, and really great woman. Her new book, Letters from Eden, is beautiful.)

My thoughts at the moment: Are the little turkeys inside those eggs warm enough???

and

WHAT ON EARTH WILL I DO IF THESE EGGS HATCH?????