"Rio Grande Toms in Golden Light"
By: Micheal Lee (Janesville, CA)
I captured this frame of a couple of tom turkeys from a family ranch in Shasta County, California. Note that I said “from” the family ranch and not “on” the family ranch. The neighbor feeds them and members of my family have been known to occasionally feed ON them, so it makes sense that the big birds have figured out which side of the fence treats them the best. My son is getting pretty good at calling them and he tried on this occasion. He did get these guys to answer a couple times but only “verbally” (I guess no one told them the season was already over). Whichever side of the fence they were on, I thought they looked nice in the last afternoon backlight of a late May afternoon. Wild turkeys like these two toms weren’t always part of the Northern California landscape. The Rio Grande subspecies (Meleagris gallopavo intermedia), native to the south-central U.S., was introduced to California in the 1950s and ’60s as part of wildlife restoration efforts. Over time, they adapted remarkably well to the oak woodlands, mixed forests, and grassy clearings of places like Shasta County.
Camera Information: Canon R7 - Canon EF100-400II +1.4XIII
Image Location: Redding Califonria
Category: Live Wild Turkey
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