Outfoxed By A Turkey
This year I am going to be on a mission to get some good wildlife photos. Basically, I’m going hunting armed with a camera.
Turkeys are especially hard to get photos of unless you are basically camped in an area they frequent or you can call them in. To come up on turkeys in the wild by accident, while although cool, you most likely can forget about taking a photo. By the time you and the turkeys are over the initial freeze reaction – they are headed out of town and you are still trying to get the lens cover off your camera.
Today I was in the mountains specifically to take photos. I was sitting on a trail near the top of the mountain. I was kind of thinking about a statement I have made a couple of times about the peace and quiet of the mountains. The reason I was thinking about it is because really the mountains aren’t quiet at all. There were birds chirping all over, unknown critters rustling the leaves on the ground, a breeze rustling the branches in the trees – I couldn’t hardly hear myself think it was so noisy – but, a comforting noisy. Then out of the peace and quiet of the mountains, a turkey gobbles. He sounded like he was sitting on my lap.
That turkey scared the hell out of me. And it happened at a time when I just happen to be thinking about the noise a mountain makes. I’m feeling the beginnings of another post. Anyway, camera in hand and my heart still beating ninety miles a minute, I go turkey huntin’.
When he first gobbled it literally sounded like he was right on top of me. That was no doubt the curvature of the hollow playing tricks with the sound because after venturing just a little bit in the direction the sound was coming from he gobbled again and this time it sounded like he was a good 75 yards away.
I have no idea where he was. He gobbled periodically right up until he detected me. I never did see him but I heard them leave the area. I say them because out of sheer luck and because my camera was on and ready I did get this one shot of the turkeys flying further down into the hollow – this one is a hen.
In the photo above the turkey is really hard to spot even at full resolution which is about 300% bigger than the ones shown. The inset in the photo below is the actual size.
Just to clear up any confusion that may arise – I didn’t see the hen from that distance, that’s how far she flew before I could get a clear shot and then it was shoot and hope.
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