Gobble gobble
Gobble. Gobble gobble, gobble. Gobble gobble gobble
Gob-ble...
Gobble-gobble-gobble. Gibble? Gobble.
Gobbledy gobble
Gobble!
*This post has been brought to you by the wild turkeys of West Marin. No animals were injured or killed in the making of this post, nor were they served up on a platter
Galen Leeds Photography 
Appropriate for this time of the year. Did you know they fly? I passed a bunch of males in full feather in a field along the roadside in Maine. I climbed out of the car and casually ambled over to the fence figuring that the turkeys would walk away but not run. Those ungainly birds took off like a shot, flew across the field, and landed more than one hundred yards away in just a few seconds. When you think of it, that makes sense. All the slow turkeys have to be dead by now. But, I was sure surprised at how agile they all were.
I’ve seen them fly. They can do so, but only for short bursts where they move fairly quickly in a single direction (kind of like a feathered missile). They can’t change direction too quickly once they are airborne, and if something gets in their way once they get started there isn’t too much they can do to avoid it. It was very surprising to me too the first time I saw it though- they don’t look much made for flying when they are on the ground
These are awesome! I see them all the time, as we live in Marin…small world! :)
Amazing! Their half-circle feathers are so unusual (especially when they are sunlit). This is how I enjoy turkey – I do not eat turkey or any other meat!
Love the way the sunlight glows through their tails. Such funny, goofy creatures, wild turkeys. But boy can they scoot when something scares them. We have them in my part of Oregon, too.
If you can get your mind around the arcane world of ancient DNA in archaeology, then you might find this article on the domestication of turkeys interesting: http://news.discovery.com/history/native-americans-turkeys-domestication.html. I think the ones in the west are all introduced from eastern populations. I have seen them on San Juan Island where they were introduced 20 or 30 years ago.
I love it!!! I’ve never seen photos of turkeys just “hanging out” like this. The first one almost doesn’t seem real… stunning!!
What fun photos. :) Love those long legs! I love the sun play in the first photo. Very nice.
Hmm … Christmas Dinner!
I see turkey quite a bit at the farm, but they scare off so easily and are difficult to photograph. These are great pictures of the big birds. I have seen them fly too. But more often than not, they run into the brush and are very well camouflaged. Looks like that one male was staring you down.
We have a ton of turkeys around our place here in New Hampshire. I love to watch them run, they look kinda silly but cute. The picture with the sunlit spread tails is beautiful.
I love these photographs….so playful and your writing too!