WC #714 - Wild Turkey

I definitely do not consider myself to be a wildlife photographer.  But when the opportunity occasionally presents itself, I try to take advantage of it.  Over the years I've gotten a few nice photographs of wildlife in Zion ... mostly of desert bighorn sheep which are quite commonly seen in the eastern region of the park.  But I've also photographed mule deer, wild ducks, wild turkeys, and even a great blue heron once a couple of years ago.  Of course, I had no idea whether or not wild turkeys are considered to be upland game fowl.  But a quick Google search confirmed that they are.

There is a small population of wild turkeys residing in Zion Canyon.  I believe that they are the Rio Grande species.  Archeological evidence indicates that wild turkeys were native to Utah.  However, at some point they vanished, and there were no wild turkeys in Utah when pioneers from the east began to arrive in the mid-1800s.  In 1925, an attempt to introduce the Eastern wild turkey to Utah failed.  In the 1950s, Merriam’s wild turkeys from Colorado were introduced to Utah successfully, but the population grew slowly.  In the 1980s, Rio Grande wild turkeys from Texas were introduced to Utah and became firmly established.  Today there are an estimated 20,000 wild turkeys in Utah of which about 16,000 are of the Rio Grande species and the rest are of the Merriam’s species.

I did not spend much time in Zion Canyon during my trip to Zion this year.  I spent most of my time up in the eastern region of the park.  However, on the last day of my trip, I took a hike in Zion Canyon and happened upon a flock of six wild turkeys.  I followed and photographed them for about thirty minutes and got a few nice photographs.  And ... I now know with 100% certainty that turkeys can indeed fly.  At the end of that thirty minute period, the turkeys were grazing near the top of one side of a small valley formed by a small stream.  Suddenly, unprovoked by me as I was just standing nearby waiting for a good shot, they all took off and flew I'd say about a couple hundred feet or so to the other side of the valley across the stream.

Canon 5D II
Canon 70-200mm f/4L IS
85mm, f/4, 1/80 second, ISO 250 (hand-held in auto mode with IS enabled)