Turkey in the Woods, Sunshine Coast, BC

Anyone Lose a Turkey?

Hiking on the Sunshine Coast, BC, has taught me to always expect the unexpected— and a few weeks ago this was certainly the case. It felt very weird to look down off a bridge into a mountain river and see... a full size turkey! It took few seconds for it to sink in, what this thing actually was, and then our small group had a lot of fun speculating on how the heck it had ended up there.

The two most promising theses were A: someone had put it on their deck / patio to thaw, and a large animal (dog, cougar, bear) had snatched it and dragged it off into the wilderness. But then why leave it? And why was it not more chewed up? B: someone thought this would be a good place to thaw a frozen turkey (they do recommend cold flowing water). But who would think leaving it in the wilderness, crawling with hungry animals, would be a good idea?

Definitely this was one of the strangest things I have come across while hiking.

But there is always, always, something. Below is a shot of a cardinal-- a bird not native to this area --also in the middle of the woods. Always something!