{"id":29756,"date":"2015-10-13T06:05:28","date_gmt":"2015-10-13T12:05:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=29756"},"modified":"2025-10-18T10:33:37","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T15:33:37","slug":"wild-turkeys-in-the-stansbury-mountains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/10\/13\/wild-turkeys-in-the-stansbury-mountains\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild Turkeys In The Stansbury Mountains"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WildWild Turkey portrait in the Stansbury Mountains of Utah – Nikon D810, f7.1, 1\/320, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday while up in one of the canyons of the Stansbury Mountains some movement caught my eye and when I looked closely I could see a small flock of Wild Turkeys in the junipers.<\/p>\n

Most of them took off right away but one of them hung around in the junipers for a bit but stuck its head out to see what was going on.<\/p>\n

I didn’t have much for shutter speed and when I took this image the vehicle was still running, that might account for the slight blur in the lower chest feathers.<\/p>\n

\"WildWild Turkey in the Stansbury Mountains – Nikon D810, f7.1, 1\/320, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

After a minute or so the turkey moved out into a small clearing between the junipers giving me the chance to photograph its whole body.<\/p>\n

I believe this is a first fall tom but if I am wrong please don’t hesitate to correct me.<\/p>\n

I don’t have many opportunities to photograph Wild Turkeys<\/span><\/a> because they scurry off so quickly so I was glad this one hung around as long as it did.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Wild Turkey photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday while up in one of the canyons of the Stansbury Mountains some movement caught my eye and when I looked closely I could see a small flock of Wild Turkeys in the junipers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":160781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27,1316,358,26,3793],"tags":[4004,970,3940,4142,4620,4674,4069,4046,10452,4210,5502,3796,401,3794],"class_list":["post-29756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-stansbury-mountains-utah","category-tooele-county","category-utah","category-wild-turkeys","tag-adult","tag-autumn","tag-canyon","tag-close-up","tag-fall","tag-junipers","tag-mountains","tag-portrait","tag-sky-island-mountains","tag-stansbury-mountains","tag-tom","tag-turkey","tag-upland-game-birds","tag-wild-turkey"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/wild-turkey-young-mia-mcpherson-3986.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-7JW","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":42953,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/11\/02\/wild-turkeys-in-utah\/","url_meta":{"origin":29756,"position":0},"title":"Wild Turkeys in Utah","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Maybe next time I up in the canyons I will get lucky and spot some of the Wild Turkeys that make their home in the Stansbury Mountains.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Wild Turkey hen in Wayne County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/wild-turkey-hen-mia-mcpherson-8388.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/wild-turkey-hen-mia-mcpherson-8388.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/wild-turkey-hen-mia-mcpherson-8388.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/wild-turkey-hen-mia-mcpherson-8388.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":137565,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/11\/28\/wild-turkey-images-happy-thanksgiving-2024\/","url_meta":{"origin":29756,"position":1},"title":"Wild Turkey Images – Happy Thanksgiving 2024","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 28, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Today, I'm sharing Wild Turkey images of foraging hens I found in the Stansbury Mountains of northern Utah because it's Thanksgiving Day. It was a lovely day.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Foraging Wild Turkey hen in the mountains of the West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/wild-turkey-hen-west-desert-mia-mcpherson-1433.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/wild-turkey-hen-west-desert-mia-mcpherson-1433.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/wild-turkey-hen-west-desert-mia-mcpherson-1433.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/wild-turkey-hen-west-desert-mia-mcpherson-1433.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":51480,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/03\/31\/wild-turkey-tom-strutting-and-displaying-plus-memories-turkeys-arouse-in-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":29756,"position":2},"title":"Wild Turkey Tom Strutting and Displaying Plus Memories Turkeys Arouse In Me","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 31, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Breeding season has begun for Wild Turkeys so when I spotted a flock of them yesterday in the Stansbury Mountains in Tooele County I was hoping to photograph a tom turkey strutting.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Strutting Wild Turkey tom, Stansbury Mountains, West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/wild-turkey-tom-strut-mia-mcpherson-1438.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/wild-turkey-tom-strut-mia-mcpherson-1438.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/wild-turkey-tom-strut-mia-mcpherson-1438.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/wild-turkey-tom-strut-mia-mcpherson-1438.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":54093,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/09\/12\/lets-talk-turkey-about-wild-turkeys-in-a-west-desert-canyon\/","url_meta":{"origin":29756,"position":3},"title":"Let’s Talk Turkey About Wild Turkeys In A West Desert Canyon","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 12, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I photographed a small flock of Wild Turkeys yesterday in the West Desert of Utah, specifically in a canyon of the Stansbury Mountains. I just never know when turkeys will show up and I am glad they did yesterday because I didn't photograph many other birds.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Two Wild Turkeys in the Stansbury Mountains, West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/wild-turkeys-stansbury-mountains-mia-mcpherson-6908.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/wild-turkeys-stansbury-mountains-mia-mcpherson-6908.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/wild-turkeys-stansbury-mountains-mia-mcpherson-6908.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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McPherson","date":"October 20, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Two days ago I spotted a Wild Turkey tom crossing a dirt road high up in the Stansbury Mountains and to my delight there were several more males following behind him.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Colorful Wild Turkey male in the Stansbury Mountains, West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/wild-turkey-male-mountains-mia-mcpherson-3399.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/wild-turkey-male-mountains-mia-mcpherson-3399.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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