Tuxedo Tom

Turkey butt is a turkey! Whoever saw a black and white turkey? This guy lives at Bates Nut Farm in Valley Center, or should I say "rules" Bates Nut Farm. He gives new meaning to all puffed up, struttin' your stuff, full of yourself, King of the Hill. He still thinks he should have been the national bird*.

Here he is puffed up...


Not puffed up...


Puffed up again...



Not puffed up is pretty lame looking, eh?

He went back and forth between puffed up and not puffed up more times than I could count. Sadly, I seemed to be the only one impressed. I didn't see any turkey ladies around.

We visited the farm a couple weeks before Thanksgiving. I doubt he ended up on anyone's table.

*"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."

--Benjamin Franklin, in a letter to his daughter