artie_fufkin wrote:

"Turkeys are by far the most interesting animal to learn about in this area."

They can get really aggressive. I don't remember which town it was in, but there was a newspaper story here a year or two ago about a turkey that kept attacking postal workers. The turkey never bothered anyone else, but as soon as it saw someone in a postal uniform, it would chase after him (or her). They tried several people on the route, and the turkey kept reacting to the uniform.
The turkeys at least move out of the road when there's an on-coming car. The friggin' geese just stand there, and if you get out of your car to try to move them, some of them don't back down. And they shit everywhere. My town has had to close fields because there's so much goose poop on them.

I know geese can be mean little shits and I can only imagen what thousands of geese leave behind.  However my truck doesnt yield to animals under 40lbs and if I was the mail man that turkey would have got a beek full of pepper spray.  I like animals but there is a reason I can use my thumbs and they cant. 

The thing with wild turkeys and geese being aggressive is that it would never happen in the wild.  Unless the goose is protecting its young.  A turkey will fly off the nest if you get to close before it would fight you.  All animals are scared of humans.  Yours know humans wont hurt them.

"Turkeys are by far the most interesting animal to learn about in this area."

They can get really aggressive. I don't remember which town it was in, but there was a newspaper story here a year or two ago about a turkey that kept attacking postal workers. The turkey never bothered anyone else, but as soon as it saw someone in a postal uniform, it would chase after him (or her). They tried several people on the route, and the turkey kept reacting to the uniform.
The turkeys at least move out of the road when there's an on-coming car. The friggin' geese just stand there, and if you get out of your car to try to move them, some of them don't back down. And they shit everywhere. My town has had to close fields because there's so much goose poop on them.

artie_fufkin wrote:

APRTW wrote:

Herd of cattle.  Flock, or brood of chickens.

Rafter of turkeys; murder of crows.
We've had to put a moratorium on photos of wild turkeys in the paper because they've become so ubiquitous here. Not as bad as the nasty Canada geese, but there are a lot of them.
Back in the day, we used to get maybe one call a week, usually from a middle-aged or eldlerly woman, who breathlessly demanded we send a photographer to her home because there were wild turkeys in her back yard. Then when the digital photography age dawned the same people started sending us photos via email. Now it's deer. They're everywhere. I tell people when they call, "We only leave the building for animals the size of a black bear or larger. When there's a moose munching on your azeleas, let us know."

It is turkey season here in Illinois.  It will be a couple of weeks before I can go but I am super ready for it.  Turkeys are by far the most interesting animal to learn about in this area.   

The problem with wildlife in urban areas is there is no hunting to control the population.  Animals can adapt to almost any enviroment.  When humans populate what was woods the animals dont leave, they adapt.

"1a.  One word for two or more individuals of the species of animal that Easterners call "cows" = cattle. [No problems here]
1b.  One word for one individual of the species of animal that Easterners call "cows" = ? [That's weird, there's no word in English to say, in effect, "that is a cattle" in the way that we can say, "that is a rabbit" or "that is a bear".  That is to say, cattle is the plural of what?]"

My dad grew up on a farm, so he can distinguish between a Guernsey and a Hereford, but to me they're all hamburgers.

APRTW wrote:

It doesnt seem like my area gets caught up in what to call things.  Cows, Cattle, Soda, Pop, Coke, Yard sale, garage sale, rumage sale we know what you mean.

I always wanted to go up to someone having a yard sale and ask "How much for your yard?" They should just call them "Useless-Shit-I'm-Going-To-Take-To-The-Dump-If-No-One-Buys-It" sales.
A lot of those colloquialisms are becoming extinct. It's not very often anymore you hear someone around here ask for a "tonic" (soda) or a "frappe" (milk shake) when they're thirsty. I'm not sure you were on the Yahoo board at the time, but I think I freaked out TK several years ago when I told him you can still buy bread in a can at any supermarket in New England. You have to look for it in the corner of the very top shelf of the last aisle before the emergency exit, but you can still find it.

APRTW wrote:

Max wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

The only things I remember about Oklahoma are truck stops and cows, and making the mistake of referring to cows at a truck stop. "You people from back East call 'em cows, but they're cattle ..."

the interesting thing, linguistically, is that there is no common word to use for one single head of cattle.  Pretty much the same is true for the domestic bird we eat and call 'chicken'. 

So, if you are from cattle country, this is a cow, that is a bull, the little one is a calf, and there are a lot of cattle in Oklahoma.  Ditto for hen, rooster, and chicken, but with that one, I can't even think of a word that refers to many of them.

Herd of cattle.  Flock, or brood of chickens.

I think you missed my points a bit:



1a.  One word for two or more individuals of the species of animal that Easterners call "cows" = cattle. [No problems here]
1b.  One word for one individual of the species of animal that Easterners call "cows" = ? [That's weird, there's no word in English to say, in effect, "that is a cattle" in the way that we can say, "that is a rabbit" or "that is a bear".  That is to say, cattle is the plural of what?]



2a.  One word for two or more individuals of the species of animal that Easterners call "chickens" = ? [Hint: it ain't "chickens" which technically refers to the young.  Yes, colloquially we use it as the common name for the species, but I think that is because there simply is no other word in the English language for it.]
2b.  One word for one individual of the species of animal that Easterners call "chickens" = ?

artie_fufkin wrote:

The only things I remember about Oklahoma are truck stops and cows, and making the mistake of referring to cows at a truck stop. "You people from back East call 'em cows, but they're cattle ..."

the interesting thing, linguistically, is that there is no common word to use for one single head of cattle.  Pretty much the same is true for the domestic bird we eat and call 'chicken'. 

So, if you are from cattle country, this is a cow, that is a bull, the little one is a calf, and there are a lot of cattle in Oklahoma.  Ditto for hen, rooster, and chicken, but with that one, I can't even think of a word that refers to many of them.

The only things I remember about Oklahoma are truck stops and cows, and making the mistake of referring to cows at a truck stop. "You people from back East call 'em cows, but they're cattle ..."