Wild Turkey

Wild Turkey

My Aunt has a country property just a little north of me with a flock of wild turkeys that happily come and feed on the grain she puts out for them everyday. They are a particularly skittish bird and take off for the hills the moment they see someone coming but my Aunt phoned one day last spring to tell me the males were ‘in season’ and as such tend to be distracted. LoL She suggested it might be a good time to try and get some photographs of them. So off I went a number of times at the crack of dawn to see what I could get in the early morning light.

The male turkeys puff up and do a dance in order to attract the females and the plumage, as you can see from this photo, is quite remarkable. Still, despite their distraction, they were dashing about her garden so hiding from them became quite the game of hide and seek.

Odd isn’t it. They have those lovely feathers and such an…. ahem ... unfortunate sort of face. :-) The wattle becomes red when they are attempting to attract a lady and quite white when they are frightened. It was utterly fascinating watching their behaviour.

HollyCawfieldPhotography