An Unforgettable Day: Eastern Wild Turkey Encounters

Tuesday was more reminiscent of late fall than of early spring with a bitter chill in the air and strong gusts of wind from the northwest. Dawn found me concealed by the edge of a mountain meadow with the 500mm F4 and 40-D mounted on the tripod, hoping to sight wild turkeys.

I was not to be disappointed as soon after dawn turkeys began appearing with young gobblers known as "jakes", coming quite near me. Soon I heard a thunderous gobble in the distance and saw a large mature bird coming toward the jakes. They hunched over, began shuffling their feet, and rubbing their legs together. Sometimes they even lowered themselves completely to the ground.

Dancing ?

The mature gobbler stopped quite some distance away and began doing the same thing.
I have not read about this behavior, but it has to be some sort of challenge to the other birds as the mature bird did not approach closer.

Trying To Intimidate ?

The posturing continued for some time and then the jakes stopped shuffling and ran at the mature bird.

What Is He Doing?

The large bird fled to the opposite side of the meadow and they stopped pursuit so he quit running and spent nearly an hour posturing and strutting. This began before sunrise, when the light was poor, but fortunately continued until the rays of the sun hit the bird and showed the colors of the plumage to best effect.

"I can't believe I ran from those little boys"

It seemed strange that the jakes intimidated the large bird, but evidently he was no match for that many determined young gobblers.

"Showing Who Looks The Most Impressive"

That evening two large gobblers had a violent fight. I saw one skirting the edge of the meadow at extreme range. He went into the edge of the woodland and I was recording him with the XL-H1 and 100-400mm, when another gobbler arrived. The fight was so intense that I could actually hear the impact of the wings beating against each other at over 300 yards of distance.
Unortunately there was quite a bit of intervening brush, making filming difficult, but it was nonetheless one of those rare moments that one never forgets, as in fact was most of the events of this blustery early April day.

Camera Critters: Summer Whitetails-The King

After a solid string of posts featuring the "Eastern Wild Turkey, we dig into the archives for some shots of mature whitetail bucks from the past.

The first and last photographs were taken at Big Meadows in Shenandoah National Park in 2004. These photos (with the exception of the 2nd) were taken with a Canon 10-D, which was my first DSLR, and the Canon 100-400mm L zoom.

Mature 10-Point: 2004

I photographed the buck below for the first time in the autumn of 1999 when he was already a mature, beautiful eight-point.

He was the most commonly seen buck at Big Meadows for several years. Billie Cromwell looked at his photograph and said "He looks like a King surveying his domain", so I named him "King". While he was not the largest buck I saw there, he became like an old friend and I learned a lot about whitetail behavior by observing and photographing him over the years.

King in 1999: Rebel X Sigma 170-500mm: Negative film scanned to Photo CD by Kodak

He did get somewhat larger than the photo above, attaining either ten or eleven points at one time. By 2004 he was going down hill, but was still a beautiful buck. If I recall correctly, I saw him for the last time during the rut of 2006 when he had lost most of his antler mass and had a decidedly "geriatric" appearance.

King in 2004

For more Camera Critters Photos, click Here!

March 31: A Beautiful Spring Day

Shortly after sunup this morning I spied these deer interacting. They are brother and sister, but are not the same age. The buck is standing in back and will be two years old this June, while the doe will be four years old. He was licking and nibbling the hair on the back of her neck and top of the head and she was enjoying every moment of it.

"Siblings"

They definitely were not there yesterday, but this afternoon the Coltsfoot were in full bloom by a back country road. They are one of the earliest blooming wildflowers in our area and are often mistaken for dandelion.

"Coltsfoot"

Photographing a turkey as he prepared to go to roost brought a fitting conclusion to an exceptional spring day.

"Flying Up"

Turkeys spend the night roosting in tall trees to protect them from predators while they are sleeping.

Camera Critters: Closer Is Better-Eastern Wild Turkey

While the last post demonstrated that it is possible to get photographs at long range, today's photos show that it is better to get close.

This Friday morning came in with stars shining, but a thick low lying ground fog made visibility difficult. Dawn found me hidden beside a remote mountain meadow with turkeys calling in the distance. Just before sunrise the fog started to lift, and calling and gobbling drew nearer.

Canon 40-D 500mm F4

As the fog lifted the gobblers strutted on a distant hillside and eventually came past where I was hidden, giving me an excellent photographic opportunity.

Canon 40-D 500mm F4+ 1.4 extender

Even though one may be able to capture images of wildlife at fantastic distances with the big lenses, it is better to be reasonably close if one wishes to resolve detail in feathers or fur.

Canon 40-D 500mm F4+ 1.4 extender

From now until late May is the best time to photograph these majestic birds, as this is the mating season and the males are far more likely to strut and gobble at this time. It is always a challenge to capture them in an ideal pose and setting. I have never taken a gobbler photo that I am completely happy with.

Even though this spot is nearly a mile from where I photographed the turkeys in the previous post, I am reasonably certain that they are the same birds. A large flock may range over a substantial amount of territory, but will usually revisit favorite feeding and courting spots at least once a week and sometimes much more often.

For more Camera Critters photos, click HERE!