Out & About

OUTFIELD

The perfect turkey

Wild turkeys are a different animal than the domestic turkey that graced millions of Thanksgiving tables this week, and hunters are giving thanks for that.

A domestic turkey wouldn’t live more than a few weeks in the wild. Bred for huge meaty breasts and thighs, domestic turkeys can’t fly or run very fast, making them easy prey for predators.

Wild turkeys are sleek, alert and built for speed and survival.

Male domestic turkeys tend to be vocal and will respond with a squeaky gobble to almost any noise. Wild toms do not gobble as often, having learned that too much talking can call in things other than turkeys, like predators and hunters.

OUTSEE

Touring Scandinavia

What: “Scandinavia: Land of the Midnight Sun,” free multimedia program on sea kayaking and hiking in fjords of Norway and Lofoton Islands in the Arctic Sea.

Who: By Swedish-born Lena Conlon, owner of Crossing Latitudes in Bozeman and former NOLS sea kayaking program leader.

Monday, 7 p.m., at Corbin Center, 827 W. Cleveland and Tuesday, 7 p.m., at Mountain Gear.

OUTMEDIA

Climbing novel wins top award

Book: “The Wall: A Thriller,” by Jeff Long (Simon & Schuster, $24).

Expertly set in the world of big-wall climbing, Long’s seventh novel won the $2,000 Grand Prize in the 2006 Banff Mountain Book Festival. Featuring two old friends who return to Yosemite’s El Capitan to revisit old memories, this cliff-hanging novel takes a supernatural turn before reaching its shattering finale.

Other top books in festival judging include:

Adventure travel: “Eating Stone,” by Ellen Meloy (Pantheon) chronicles a year studying desert bighorn sheep in the southwestern U.S.

Mountain literature: “The Climbing Essays,” by Jim Perrin (Neil Wilson), combines 40 years of the British author’s writings about climbing and the outdoors.

Mountaineering history: “Mount Everest: Reconnaissance 1935, the Forgotten Adventure,” by James Monroe Thorington (self-published), a complex account of the fifth recorded attempt to summit Everest, the book follows alpinists Eric Shipton, Dan Bryant and Tensing Norgay as they explore 26 Himalayan peaks and map the Everest North Face.

Special mention: “Strange and Dangerous Dreams: The Fine Line Between Adventure and Madness,” by Geoff Porter, (Mountaineers Books), examines the nebulous boundary between an adventurous soul and an unsound mind through 11 tales of troubled expeditions.

OUTLOOK

Best fishing times

Lunar tables from the U.S. Naval Observatory list peak fishing times. Be fishing at least one hour before and one hour after given times. Applies to all time zones. (* indicates best days.)

Through Dec. 3

* Today: 5:10 p.m., 5:45 a.m.

* Monday: 6 p.m., 6:20 a.m.

Tuesday: 6:45 p.m., 7:10 a.m.

Wednesday: 7:35 p.m., 8 a.m.

Thursday: 8:25 p.m., 8:50 a.m.

Friday: 9:15 p.m., 9:45 p.m.

Saturday: 10:10 p.m., 11:40 a.m.

Next Sunday: 11:05 p.m.