Two Wild Turkeys

Even though it rained yesterday, today and will again tomorrow I decided to go to my community garden, mostly just to putter and see what’s growing. I needed to bring some tomato cages that I’d been making from welded wire in my garage as my latest rainy day project. This time I remembered to bring my camera thinking I’d maybe take another photo of my verrrrry slooow growing artichokes or my flea bitten broccoli. On the way I spotted two turkeys by the road. My first thought was that I wished that I had my camera. In about a second or two it occurred to me that I actually DID have my camera. I pulled over and shot a few photos. Its times like this I really feel hindered by my 2 mega pixel, 3x zoom old camera. The turkey strutting with his back to me was just too far away to get a sharp image. I ended up using digital zoom just to make him bigger than a dot. The other turkey in the brush was very close to me, but it was dark and gloomy and I must have not been able to hold my camera still enough for the slower shutter speed. Even though the photos are not technically great, I’m really happy just getting them at all. I really like spotting wildlife and it’s such a bonus to be able to get a photo. I’ve seen wild turkeys before, but have never been as close to one as I was today.
Years ago there were no wild turkeys in Massachusetts. Now they are really becoming more common here.. From the hill I was standing on when I took the photos, the sky scrapers of Boston are visible and are probably about 7 or 8 miles away, as the crow flies. These two birds are almost urban dwellers. I found a site that has a nice FAQ about wild turkeys if you are interested in learning more about them.
It’s http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/dfw_turkey_learning_kit.htm