The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection reports that wild turkeys were abundant in Connecticut when the first settlers arrived but forest clearing, unregulated hunting, and a series of severe winters eliminated the turkey from Connecticut by the early 1800s.

Attempts to restore wild turkeys in the 1950s and 1960s were largely unsuccessful. Later techniques in the 1970s and 1980s resulted in the successful release of 356 wild turkeys at 18 Connecticut sites.

Subsequent population expansion has resulted in the successful restoration of wild turkeys to all 169 Connecticut towns.

The success of the program was most evident early on the morning of Dec. 9 at the entrance to Powder Forest off Route 10 in Simsbury. A flock numbering 50 to 70 seemed unconcerned by nearby traffic or human observers as they foraged in the grass bordering the highway and scratched at the leaves at the edge of the forestland, looking for something good to eat.

I could only spot three males or "toms" in the flock. Toms are bigger and heavier than hens and are dark in coloration with iridescent feathers. They have a fleshy head, short spurs on their legs, and a hair-like beard protruding from their breast. The hen is lighter (brown and buff colored); she lacks spurs and the head has a pale blue color.

The encounter with such a large flock of (now again) "native" birds was thrilling. The scratching, pecking, running, stopping (but not gobbling - only males gobble) of more than 50 of the birds within 30 yards of my position gave me a feeling of union with nature.

I fell in love with them. I have searched for our national bird, the eagle, for years and have only spotted three. They were so far away that my photos are pictures of green foliage with an unidentifiable white spot tucked in.

Maybe the turkey should have been our national bird.

"For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the representative of our country. He is a bird of bad moral character. He does not get his living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead tree near the river, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the labor of the fishing hawk; and when that diligent bird has at length taken a fish, and is bearing it to his nest for the support of his mate and young ones, the bald eagle pursues him and takes it from him.

For (in) truth the turkey is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America ... He is besides, though a little vain and silly, a bird of courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his farmyard with a red coat on."

I confess to plagiarizing the last two paragraphs. Benjamin Franklin wrote them.

But I agree with Ben.