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This is from the secret Leeds forum and the reason I posted.
Location:
Leeds
Joined on:
04-Apr-2007 20:56:50
Posted:
698 posts
# Posted on: 05-Jul-2010 21:36:44. Quote
I know this is slightly beyond the Leeds boundary but...
Are there any bird watchers out there in the big wide world of SL?
I'm certainly no expert,just an interested amateur who keeps his eyes open when out and about.
I was on holiday last week and took my girlfriend to Sutton Bank to show her the finest view in Yorkshire.While walking along the footpath at the top we heard a rustling sound in the long grass.We approached with caution and saw,a couple of yards away,a Great Bustard.It ran away rather than flying and was the size and shape of a turkey with all the correct colours and markings.
IMO it can't have been anything else.I knew they'd been re-introduced in some parts of the country after being extinct for many years.It would make my day if someone could verify my sighting!
All I will offer is that I was driving back on the Pool to Harrogate road, back of harewood house way, and a turkey walked across the road in front of me. Had I had a bit more about me I should have stopped and tried to get it in the back of my motor - it would have saved me a few quid at christmas!
A Great Bustard is about a metre tall, so the grass would have had to be very long indeed. They are also extremely shy, getting within 100 metres is certainly no easy task.
Could well have been a turkey. 'wild', American type turkeys have been available from game farms in recent years and some have been released or 'escaped'. Being of the wild type they can fly well so are sometimes to be seen on pheasant shooting land. Often it is a bit of a joke, the gamekeeper knows all about them but the shooters do not, so they get a bit of surprise when the avian equivalent of a B52 goes flying over when they are waiting for pheasants. Most dissappear before Christmas and the 'keeper gets a few quid in hos back pocket-