Wild Turkeys
A couple years ago on my way to work, I had to stop in the middle of the road to allow the largest flock of turkeys I’d ever seen cross in front of me. Dozens and dozens of them. I didn’t have my camera at the time, and when I got home that night and told Harland, he thought I was exaggerating. So I felt somewhat vidicated as Harland and I drove slowly up a hill last Friday approaching another large flock of turkeys. This time I had a my camera and Harland’s longest lens poked out the window, a 300 mm f\2.8. There were probably about 100 birds in this flock feeding in a harvested cornfield, and as we drove along the road near them and stopped, they ran away towards the top of the hill.
As they topped the hill, they did something out of the ordinary – they stopped and looked back at us.
Maybe they felt safe because of their numbers, or maybe it was because we were in a vehicle.
At any rate, they paused long enough to get their picture taken, and then drifted one by one over the hill cluck clucking along the way.
– For more information about the wild turkey, click here for some facinating facts about them.
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——> UP NEXT: The orange and red berries of the Bittersweet Vine.
——-> LATER THIS WEEK: The meandering Pony Creek
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Great pictures. Several years ago they decided to reintroduce turkeys in Iowa, and I see them quite a bit anymore. Don’t think I’ve ever seen a group quite that large though.
I love hearing turkeys “cluck.” They sound so contented. We rented a house near a creek when we were first married and turkeys often roosted in the trees at the back of our lot.
Wow! I have seen turkeys before but not so many at one sitting! How interesting….
Great photos! I love to see wildlife in their natural habitat…it’s always a thrill for me to see stuff like that. It’s awesome that you had a camera this time! yay!!
Good thing you had your camera with ya. Im sure you always have it with ya now. Super shots! I’ve never seen so many. They are so funny looking. Wow!
What an awesome and lucky sight. You must have felt so good to be vindicated. 😉
They reintroduced turkeys where my folks live, several years ago now, but they do make for a wonderful scene. They an also be scary when you, unknowingly, flush them out!
I am struck by the colours of your winter. Consistent through the three posts. Cattle, horses and geese. I find your blog so real in letting me see how the landscape is in your far side of the world. Tones very different from our summer right here.
Once counted 65 of them crossing the road in front of us. One of them was an albino. We were
counting birds for the GBBC–Great Backyard Bird Count (the four days of Presidents’ Day Weekend).
I love wild turkeys! We have them here on the outskirts of the Twin Cities and I hear of them all the the time but I rarely get to see them. Thanks for sharing these pictures, now I can look at them when ever I like.
Oh wow you were lucky to see them, I seen them once in Wisconsin up in Door County and thought wow look at that and then I see them down here by me this fall in Illinois so. It is not something you usually see.
Great flock.