Spring, the wildflowers are blooming, the birds are singing, and the
male turkeys are gobbling--what an exciting time to be afield. I have
been out every morning this spring and have seen a lot of wildlife, but
good close-up encounters with mature gobblers strutting seem to be
harder to come by than usual. When the turkeys are not present it is
good to photograph the wildflowers.
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| Spring flowers add beauty to a day afield |
When the turkeys are present and one or
more gobblers are strutting and gobbling it makes for an exciting
photographic experience.
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| Mature Gobbler in full strut:Canon 5D MKIII-600mm lens |
One of the most desirable and dramatic photos of a
bull elk is to capture him bugling and over the years I have tried to
duplicate these results with turkeys, but it seems the actual act of
gobbling does not look as impressive as the elk bugling. Maybe someday I
will get the perfect photo and change my mind., but for now I would say
that capturing them strutting usually yields more impressive photos.
It actually seems to work better to document the actual gobbling with
video as you get to see the bird go through the entire process as well
as hear the exciting sound of the gobble.
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| Mature Gobbler in mid-gobble: Canon 5D MKIII-500mm lens |
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| Gobbler pauses from courting to look for danger: Canon 7D MKII-100-400mm IS II |
Of course the reason for all of this excitement is
the hens and often some of the best activity occurs when hens are
present and the gobblers are performing the courtship display. They
also strut and gobble at times when no hens are present, but it is much
more likely to happen when they are there.
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| Hen pauses from feeding while gobblers strut in adjacent meadow: Canon 7D MKII-100-400mm IS II |
If you look closely in the photo below, this hen has a
small beard (look just below the first green brier that goes partly
across its' chest), but it is a hen nonetheless. You can tell this by a
combination of factors the most important factors being the drab
coloration compared to the gobblers and the smaller size. Few hens grow
beards, but they are not exactly rare. I usually film or photograph at
least one each year.
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| Bearded Hen: Canon 7D MKII-100-400mm IS II |
Filming and photographing other species that happen
along adds to the enjoyment of the day and I especially like to capture
the deer doing something interesting, such as this young buck browsing.
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| Young deer browsing: Canon 7D MKII-100-400mm IS II |
When I was young fox squirrels were seldom seen in my area, but now I am likely to see as many or more of them than the grays.
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| Fox Squirrel: Canon 7D MKII-100-400mm IS II |
With the arrival of May the trees will soon be
covered with leaves and wildlife movement patterns will change to a
certain extent. Already the peak of the gobbling season is over and
birds are not heard or seen as often. Today is the first day of the
spring gobbler season and this will also have a dampening effect on
gobbling activity, but there will be periodic upswings in activity until
the mating season is over in early to mid-June.
Originally published at
Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.
