photography | Mass Audubon – Your Great Outdoors

The return of wild turkeys to New England is a marvelous success story. When European settlers first arrived, these native birds were plentiful but rising populations and over-hunting led to their erradication—the last wild turkey in Massachusetts was killed on Mount Tom in 1851.

Thanks to the efforts of the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (now known as Mass Wildlife), in cooperation with the University of Massachusetts, wild turkeys were reintroduced in the early 1970’s and are now plentiful once again.

Learn all about wild turkeys in the Nature & Wildlife section of our website. You’ll also find a list of upcoming programs about turkeys at our wildlife sanctuaries.

Let’s give thanks for turkeys with five fantastic photos from past submissions to our Picture This: Your Great Outdoors photo contest!

Wild turkey in a field of daffodils © Kathryn Dannay

Wild turkeys © Saundra Bernard

Wild turkey © Aimee Grace

Wild turkeys © Peter Hall

Wild tom (male) turkey © Kathy King

You may have spotted big puffs of cotton-like fluff growing on waist-high stems in a lot of meadows recently. There’s a good chance you’re witnessing the opening of the seed pods of the milkweed plant! In the fall, milkweed pods open up and release their fluffy, downy seeds to drift away on the wind and hopefully produce new plants the following year.

Don’t let the “weed” part of the name fool you: this lovely native plant presents a variety of unique flowers (there are more than 70 species native to the United States!), attracts butterflies, feeds and protects a variety of insects, provides nesting material for goldfinches and orioles, and is amazingly easy to grow. More than 60 different insects need milkweed to complete their life cycle, most notably the beloved monarch butterfly, which feeds almost exclusively on milkweed.

To celebrate this important and beautiful plant, here are five photos of milkweed pods and seeds from our Picture This: Your Great Outdoors photo contest.

A Mass Audubon Blog

Tag Archives: photography

Take 5: Giving Thanks for Turkeys

Take 5: Magnificent Milkweed