My mother is a birder, which means I hear my fair share of stories about Northern California birds, be it what she spies on Hawk Hill with her binoculars, or her latest strategies for attracting hummingbirds back to her garden (latest update: a new feeder is being delivered next week).
Yesterday she sent me an interesting blog post from the Golden Gate Audubon Society about our country’s national bird – the Bald Eagle.
The eagle was originally chosen to be our national emblem in 1782, “because of its long life, great strength and majestic looks, and also because it was then believed to exist only on this continent.” (baldeagleinfo.com)
But one founding father had a dissenting opinion – Benjamin Franklin. He wished that the Bald Eagle had not been chosen, writing that it “is a bird of bad moral character, he does not get his living honestly…Besides he is a rank coward; the little kingbird, not bigger than a sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of the district. He is therefore by no means a proper emblem for the brave and honest. . . of America.”
So what bird did Franklin instead think would be a suitable representative of our great and powerful nation, that rose up and fought for its liberty and freedom?
A turkey, of course.
“For the 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 & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on,” Franklin wrote.
That could have altered the course of Thanksgiving forever!
I’m not sure I buy Franklin’s argument that a turkey would have been a better national emblem, but at least one of them gets pardoned every year at the White House. Maybe that was instituted as a nod to their runner-up position as Chief Bird?
So as you ponder our country on this Independence Day, take a moment to think what might have graced your currency, national emblems and patriotic paintings. Being called a turkey would have taken on a completely different meaning.
Happy 4th of July!
Sarah B.
A friend and I were camping in northern California last summer, exploring the Shasta-Trinity Forest, the Klamath National Wildlife Refuge, and Lava Beds National Monument. A visitor center for the Klamath National Wildlife Center had weekly updates on bird sitings, and when we were there, a nesting bald eagle with fledglings had been sited. We drove over to check it out. Indeed, there were nesting bald eagles in row of poplars just a few short feet from the road. But they were not happy about our presence. Mom took off, swooping down and away from the nest, as soon as we arrived, leaving Junior there by his lonesome until Big Bro returned from foraging. And then Junior and Big Bro sat there on that branch, crooning plaintively for Mom to return, which she did not do while we were there. Ben Franklin was right?
Ahh, but the turkey of today cross-bred for ultimate meatiness and are fed to be primely plump, are not the turkeys that Franklin had in mind. Either wild bird is grand, but the bald eagle does have features that are a bit more unique than a wild turkey.
Hmm, there would’ve definitely been a difference had a turkey been chosen rather than the eagle.
Taste wise anyway….