{"id":61222,"date":"2019-11-05T03:55:28","date_gmt":"2019-11-05T10:55:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=61222"},"modified":"2025-10-18T15:00:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T20:00:10","slug":"wild-turkey-tom-foraging-after-a-snow-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/11\/05\/wild-turkey-tom-foraging-after-a-snow-fall\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild Turkey Tom Foraging After A Snowfall"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MaleMale Wild Turkey giving me the eye \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 640, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Six days ago I was happy to find three flocks of Wild Turkeys and the smallest flock was in good light, at the edge of a forest and they were cooperative.<\/p>\n

The other two flocks I had zero luck with. The first flock was in the shadow of a rather large peak of a mountain and that was disappointing because the toms were calling and displaying. The second flock disappeared before I could photograph them, turkeys move fast when they want to and that flock wanted to make tracks.<\/p>\n

Sometimes going slow when approaching birds just screws opportunities up. Knowing when to go slow and when to go fast, can make a huge difference.<\/p>\n

The flock of turkeys I did photograph were foraging, preening and warming up in the sunlight. It had been a colder than normal night, record breaking actually, so I bet the sun felt good on their dark feathers.<\/p>\n

At first I focused on the tom turkey because I noticed he had a rainbow of colors on some of his wing feathers, plus he was banded.<\/p>\n

I never got a shot though that exposed all the numbers sharply enough to report this turkey.<\/p>\n

\"WildWild Turkey tom foraging after a snow storm \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 640, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I noticed that the light snow had partially melted. The day before when I was up there the ground had been white. The tom didn’t seem to mind the snow at all as he foraged at the edge of the forest.<\/p>\n

\"WildWild Turkey tom in the snow \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 640, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Male Wild Turkeys<\/span><\/a> provide no parental care for their young but this tom seemed to keep an eye on the hens and their young, perhaps that was because he was the only tom in the small flock.<\/p>\n

These turkeys were so close that when they moved towards me I was able to take head shots of the tom. More photos from this small flock will probably land on my blog or photo galleries soon.<\/p>\n

Taking these turkey images on Halloween morning was a real treat.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

P.S., I did see the band on this tom’s left leg but I was unable to read the band code in my photos.<\/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":"

Six days ago I was happy to see three flocks of Wild Turkeys and the smallest flock was in good light, at the edge of a forest and they were cooperative.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":160828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,358,26,1314,3793],"tags":[970,2250,4620,4247,4245,4136,5370,4062,3795,4069,4050,4210,5502,3796,5501,401,3794],"class_list":["post-61222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-tooele-county","category-utah","category-west-desert-utah","category-wild-turkeys","tag-autumn","tag-banded","tag-fall","tag-flock","tag-flocks","tag-foraging","tag-forest","tag-male","tag-meleagris-gallopavo","tag-mountains","tag-snow","tag-stansbury-mountains","tag-tom","tag-turkey","tag-turkeys","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-tom-mia-mcpherson-5642.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-fVs","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":96163,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/10\/11\/autumn-wild-turkey-hen-portrait\/","url_meta":{"origin":61222,"position":0},"title":"Autumn Wild Turkey Hen Portrait","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 11, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"I found this Wild Turkey hen last autumn as she walked out of the shadows of the forest and into the bright morning light.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Autumn Wild Turkey hen portrait, West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/wild-turkey-hen-autumn-mia-mcpherson-5183.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/wild-turkey-hen-autumn-mia-mcpherson-5183.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/wild-turkey-hen-autumn-mia-mcpherson-5183.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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Photos","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 30, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"There were a few times when the Wild Turkeys stood upright and looked right at me as I photographed them and I took full advantage of the opportunity to take portraits of the large birds.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Foraging Wild Turkey portrait, West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/wild-turkey-close-up-mia-mcpherson-1786.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/wild-turkey-close-up-mia-mcpherson-1786.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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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 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2, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"If I hadn't have been paying attention yesterday I might have missed out on spotting a flock of turkeys in some junipers and photographing a smoke phase Wild Turkey hen.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Smoke phase Wild Turkey hen, West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/wild-turkey-smoke-phase-hen-mia-mcpherson-9985.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/wild-turkey-smoke-phase-hen-mia-mcpherson-9985.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/wild-turkey-smoke-phase-hen-mia-mcpherson-9985.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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