In the Suburbs

Story and Photos by Joseph Zahnle

One morning last March, my ninety-seven-year-old mother-in-law, Margaret, walked into my home office and asked if I had heard the turkeys. “In our neighborhood?” I thought. I had seen them near the farmland about two miles from our home in Caldwell after the crops had been cut. But here in the suburbs?

I went into the kitchen, looked into our fenced backyard, and spotted our four special visitors. They had found the birdfeeder and were cleaning up the ground around it. And they were using the birdbath for drinking water. Margaret, who is living with my wife Barbara and me, said the turkeys had spent the whole day in our yard, eating, drinking, and resting.