Roosting turkeys

Not the clearest of photos. Hand held at dusk. The old CoolPix 950 has decent low light performance, hurrah!

Outside temperature about 3F (-16C) when I took this. A bit of wind. The colour and shake captures what I felt when I was standing there. I can't imagine what these birds feel like.

These birds are Meleagris gallopavo, the North American Wild Turkey. They are quite large - about 3 feet from beak to tail (90cm) and weigh in at 9 pounds (4kg). Seeing them fly up into these trees, maneuvering among all those branches is quite a sight. Their wingspan is about 4 feet (1.2m) - I can't believe they do it, but they obviously feel the work of getting up there is worth it. Local predators would be foxes and dogs.

Turkey tracks

Footprints of wild turkeys foraging on and under the wild cherry trees.

Turkeys at work

A small flock of wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) have been visiting us for about a week now and I finally had the camera at work. It's not the best picture; taken through the window in the rainy afternoon but I thought it interesting. They come to eat the fruits on the ornamental trees - I think they're some variety of tiny apple. I tried to get a shot of the turkeys up in the trees but I couldn't hold the camera still enough. I work in a very urban area, but as you can see, it doesn't take much cover to attract wildlife.