Yesterday was the first day of real rain the Rogue Valley continuing into today. As I drove through the foothills southwest of Jacksonville I was greeted at every turn by our Turkey population. The vibrant brown and gold of the turkeys' tail feathers shimmered against the tan grass backdrop, as they diligently gathered the last of the grass seed before the first heavy rain. I've been watching the brood near our property fattening themselves up on the left over horse feed. A month or so ago I noticed that they were beginning to lose some of their monotone brown tail feathers, and yesterday for the first time this year I noticed their fall color.
I took the above photo this spring right before the new population of chicks was hatched. The fellow on the left is the older of the two Toms. The quite in our woodland is now punctuated by the acorns falling on the metal barn roof, and I look forward to watching the deer and their fawn chomp the acorns off the lawn.