{"id":63933,"date":"2020-02-09T05:18:32","date_gmt":"2020-02-09T12:18:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=63933"},"modified":"2025-10-18T17:41:05","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T22:41:05","slug":"wild-turkeys-hay-bales-and-the-noisy-diesel-pickup-that-chased-them-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/02\/09\/wild-turkeys-hay-bales-and-the-noisy-diesel-pickup-that-chased-them-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild Turkeys, Hay Bales And The Noisy Diesel Pickup That Chased Them Away"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WildWild Turkey taking a break from feeding – Nikon D500, f8, 1\/800, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

After days and days of clouds, snow, and rain yesterday morning had mostly clear skies and sunshine so I went out in search of birds. The only birds I photographed though were some Wild Turkeys feeding in bales of hay on a ranch in northern Utah. Some of the hay is from last year and some of it has been in place for years, moldering away.<\/p>\n

\"WildWild Turkey on top of a stack of hay bales – Nikon D500, f8, 1\/1000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

At first a few of the turkeys seemed a little wary but they soon settled down and poked their heads into the straw to retrieve whatever it was they were feeding on. I had photographed turkeys feeding in these bales of hay back at the end of December.<\/p>\n

\"HayHay bales and Wild Turkeys – Nikon D500, f8, 1\/800, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

There were enough Wild Turkeys on the hay bales that I had a hard time deciding which of them to focus on, I tried at times to get two or even three birds on the frame. Mostly I focused on individual birds when I could.<\/p>\n

\"LightLight colored Wild Turkey on hay bales – Nikon D500, f8, 1\/1000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

As I took photos of the flock of Wild Turkeys I noticed that there was a bit of variation of color in their body plumage, some were rather light colored.<\/p>\n

\"ColorfulColorful Wild Turkey hen on hay bales – Nikon D500, f8, 1\/1000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

And others were more colorful. The angle of the morning light seemed to make some of the reds positively glow.<\/p>\n

\"ColorfulColorful Wild Turkey and its shadow – Nikon D500, f8, 1\/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

On some of the turkeys more than others, the iridescence of their feathers seemed to pop. Since the turkeys were primarily focused on feeding I was able to focus on them.<\/p>\n

\"WildWild Turkey hen on a hay bale – Nikon D500, f8, 1\/1000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The peacefulness of photographing the calm Wild Turkeys feeding in the hay would soon come to an end because of a noisy, diesel pickup truck with two men with cameras in it. They came up close on the turkeys from the north which put them at a bad angle of light because at this time of the year the sun is lower in the horizon and to the south. They were also photographing the turkeys with the loud, diesel engine still running.<\/p>\n

\"OneOne ticked off Wild Turkey – Nikon D500, f8, 1\/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

It didn’t take long before the turkeys became visibly disturbed, that was easy to see by looking at the posture of the birds. They had gone from calm to alert to outright stressed in no time.<\/p>\n

\"WildWild Turkey on alert – Nikon D500, f8, 1\/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Some of the turkeys started flying off of the bales of hay towards the safety of the hills behind them.<\/p>\n

\"StressedStressed Wild Turkeys – Nikon D500, f8, 1\/1000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

In about the span of minute all of the Wild Turkeys<\/span><\/a> had flown off of the bales of hay because of that noisy, diesel pickup truck being so close to them.<\/p>\n

The driver of the pickup truck did apologize when he drove past. I will say this though, a little bit more etiquette would have prevented them from having to apologize at all.<\/p>\n

Turning their engine off might have calmed the birds down again and we all<\/em> might have been able to photograph the turkeys for a while longer.<\/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":"

In about the span of minute all of the Wild Turkeys had flown off of the bales of hay because of that noisy, diesel pickup truck being so close to them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":160859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27,1148,1962,26,3793],"tags":[4540,6303,8612,4508,4040,4070,4870,4871,4359,8614,3795,8617,16903,8611,1994,8613,8616,823,3796,5501,401,3794,373],"class_list":["post-63933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-etiquette-wildlife-ethics","category-utah","category-wild-turkeys","tag-alert","tag-colorful","tag-diesel-pickup","tag-etiquette","tag-feeding","tag-female","tag-hay","tag-hay-bales","tag-hen","tag-light-colored","tag-meleagris-gallopavo","tag-noisy","tag-promontory-peninsula","tag-ranch","tag-shadow","tag-stack","tag-stressed","tag-ticked-off","tag-turkey","tag-turkeys","tag-upland-game-birds","tag-wild-turkey","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/wild-turkey-hay-mia-mcpherson-7587.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-gDb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":67257,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/03\/21\/wild-turkey-hens-on-bales-of-hay\/","url_meta":{"origin":63933,"position":0},"title":"Wild Turkey Hens On Bales Of Hay","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 21, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm hoping to get back up into some mountains soon where I know more Wild Turkeys are because as much as I like the bales of hay in these photos I'd love to get photos of turkeys in more natural settings again.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Curious Wild Turkey hen on a bale of hay, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/wild-turkey-hen-curious-hay-mia-mcpherson-7473.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-curious-hay-mia-mcpherson-7473.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/wild-turkeys-hay-bale-mia-mcpherson-7944.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-turkeys-hay-bale-mia-mcpherson-7944.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/wild-turkeys-hay-bale-mia-mcpherson-7944.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/wild-turkeys-hay-bale-mia-mcpherson-7944.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":145779,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/05\/21\/wild-turkey-portraits-from-wichita-mountains-national-wildlife-refuge\/","url_meta":{"origin":63933,"position":2},"title":"Wild Turkey Portraits From Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 21, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm sharing a few Wild Turkey portraits taken last week near a creek at Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge in Comanche County, Oklahoma.","rel":"","context":"In "Comanche County"","block_context":{"text":"Comanche County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/oklahoma\/comanche-county\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Wild Turkey close up at Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, Comanche County, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/wild-turkey-portrait-wichita-mountains-nwr-mia-mcpherson-4342.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-portrait-wichita-mountains-nwr-mia-mcpherson-4342.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/wild-turkey-portrait-wichita-mountains-nwr-mia-mcpherson-4342.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/wild-turkey-portrait-wichita-mountains-nwr-mia-mcpherson-4342.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":42953,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/11\/02\/wild-turkeys-in-utah\/","url_meta":{"origin":63933,"position":3},"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":107473,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/10\/23\/jaywalking-wild-turkey-pictures\/","url_meta":{"origin":63933,"position":4},"title":"Jaywalking Wild Turkey Pictures","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 23, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Three days ago, while I was in northern Utah I found some jaywalking Wild Turkey hens near some ranchlands, which made me chuckle out loud.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Jaywalking hen Wild Turkey, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/wild-turkey-jaywalking-mia-mcpherson-2463.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/wild-turkey-jaywalking-mia-mcpherson-2463.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/wild-turkey-jaywalking-mia-mcpherson-2463.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/wild-turkey-jaywalking-mia-mcpherson-2463.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":63933,"position":5},"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. 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