How do you tell the age of a Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)? Strangely enough, that was the first question that came into my mind when I encountered a small group of Wild Turkeys on Monday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Many of the turkeys that I have spotted at this refuge over the year have been considerably larger than the members of this group that seemed mostly young to me.
I went searching on-line for an answer to my question. Most of the information that I could find seemed to be designed for hunters, who could measure the length of the spurs and the beard and carefully check the patterns of the feathers after they had “harvested” the bird.
I was more interested in trying to capture the distinctive way in which these turkeys were strutting as they moved slowly toward the underbrush after they had detected my presence. It is probably my imagination, but the open mouths of the the two turkeys in the second photo makes me think that they were carrying on a conversation as they were walking.
The beautiful shades of brown and the different patterns of the feathers of a wild turkey never fail to impress me. The warm coloration of these beautiful birds reminds me that autumn, which starts next week for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, will soon be upon us.
As I was verifying the date for the Autumnal Equinox for this year on the Old Farmer’s Almanac website, I came across this Irish proverb that seemed appropriate, “Autumn days come quickly, like the running of a hound on the moor.”
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Nice captures of what I find to be elusive characters, Mike! Even though it is still quite warm here in SC I can feel fall coming by the change in angle of the morning sun and a few trees have started to drop leaves.
Most of the time, turkeys fade into the undergrowth before I can react, so l see is their tail ends. As for the weather, we are supposed to get up close to 90 today, so the heat is still around here too. I have noticed, though that it is now taking a lot longer to get light in the mornings.
What she said…
I wondered about the specific epithet, and found that it comes from gallus(“chicken”) + pāvō (“peacock”). That made me laugh, but I still like the fact that gallopavo suggests the way these birds “gallop” off into the underbrush.
I love playing with words too and chuckled at the image of galloping turkeys, an exaggerated type of poultry in motion. 🙂
“Poultry in motion…” Ohhhhh……. good one!
Sorry–I couldn’t help myself. 🙂
Turkeys are out and about here too. Like the quote!
Blue Rock Horses Frederick County, Virginia bluerockhorses.com
Super. It is good to hear that the turkeys are running wild everywhere. 🙂