Turkeys at the US National Arboretum

Before this year turkeys had been few and far between at the Arboretum. There have been recent years when none were spotted. This year various people, including me, have seen groups of two or three.  This picture was captured by an unmanned wildlife camera. Thanks you Sue Greeley for sharing it. Sue is the wildlife czar at the Arboretum. She monitors populations of various animals and attends to injured animals and corpses.

It's exciting to see those birds. My brother-in-law Larry, past president of Izaak Walton, has been telling me for years about how successfully turkeys are coming back. They're residents in every county in Maryland and in the District. Like other shy wild species, they seem to be able to adapt to living in populated areas; I remember a flock of at least 30 birds that wandered openly around a subdivision we vacationed in in Hawaii. I'd love to have a big flock resident at the Arboretum and it looks like we're headed in that direction.