Hi Tweets,

Ingrid Lae writes:

>The bird had a chicken like head with a red beak and red cheek patches. It
>was quite large almost the size of a goose. It had a strange shape, almost
>like a raccoon, or an armadillo, really humped. It was a uniform grey colour
>with tiny white spots that were slightly larger on the sides. The neck was
>chickenish too and sloped down to a light brown area just at the base of the
>neck. The legs were thick and grey.

Perfect description of a Helmeted Guineafowl (Numida meleagris), an African
gamebird species; seem to remember there's one or two places on Vancouver
Island where they're feral. Heck, if someone's been bothering to monitor
their occurrence, they may even be a countable intro species soon, like Mute
Swan (only half-kidding).

Michael Price The Sleep of Reason Gives Birth to Monsters
Vancouver BC Canada -Goya
mprice at mindlink.net