{"id":67257,"date":"2020-03-21T05:33:01","date_gmt":"2020-03-21T11:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=67257"},"modified":"2024-11-22T02:35:03","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T08:35:03","slug":"wild-turkey-hens-on-bales-of-hay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/03\/21\/wild-turkey-hens-on-bales-of-hay\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild Turkey Hens On Bales Of Hay"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-137250 size-full\" title=\"Alert Wild Turkey hen on a hay bale\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/wild-turkey-hen-hay-mia-mcpherson-7417.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/wild-turkey-hen-hay-mia-mcpherson-7417.jpg\" alt=\"Alert Wild Turkey hen on a hay bale, Box Elder County, Utah\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27643%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20900%20643%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27643%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/wild-turkey-hen-hay-mia-mcpherson-7417-200x143.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/wild-turkey-hen-hay-mia-mcpherson-7417-250x179.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/wild-turkey-hen-hay-mia-mcpherson-7417-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/wild-turkey-hen-hay-mia-mcpherson-7417-400x286.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/wild-turkey-hen-hay-mia-mcpherson-7417-600x429.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/wild-turkey-hen-hay-mia-mcpherson-7417-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/wild-turkey-hen-hay-mia-mcpherson-7417-800x572.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/wild-turkey-hen-hay-mia-mcpherson-7417.jpg 900w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Alert Wild Turkey hen on a hay bale \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/800, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve been enjoying seeing flocks of Wild Turkeys when I have been able to get out into the field lately. Some of the flocks have been on the smaller size but some have also been large. It is easy to see that the toms know it is breeding season because they have been displaying for the hens but for various reasons I have not been able to get decent images of the males strutting their stuff.<\/p>\n<p>I have been able to get nice photos of a few hens though. These two photos were taken in northern Utah nine days ago, the turkey hens were feeding on something in stacked hay bales when a pickup truck coming down the road disturbed the peace and quiet.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-137251 size-full\" title=\"Curious Wild Turkey Hen on a bale of hay\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/wild-turkey-hen-curious-hay-mia-mcpherson-7473.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/wild-turkey-hen-curious-hay-mia-mcpherson-7473.jpg\" alt=\"Curious Wild Turkey hen on a bale of hay, Box Elder County, Utah\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27643%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20900%20643%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27643%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/wild-turkey-hen-curious-hay-mia-mcpherson-7473-200x143.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/wild-turkey-hen-curious-hay-mia-mcpherson-7473-250x179.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/wild-turkey-hen-curious-hay-mia-mcpherson-7473-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/wild-turkey-hen-curious-hay-mia-mcpherson-7473-400x286.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/wild-turkey-hen-curious-hay-mia-mcpherson-7473-600x429.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/wild-turkey-hen-curious-hay-mia-mcpherson-7473-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/wild-turkey-hen-curious-hay-mia-mcpherson-7473-800x572.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/wild-turkey-hen-curious-hay-mia-mcpherson-7473.jpg 900w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Curious Wild Turkey Hen on a bale of hay \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/800, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Wild Turkey hens flew off the bales of hay not long after I took these photos because of the pickup truck that rumbled by. They didn&#8217;t fly far, just to the nearby sagebrush dotted hillside but often times there was a fence in between the turkeys and I and I didn&#8217;t much care for the fence in my photos so those images will go into my delete bin.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;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&#8217;d love to get photos of turkeys in more natural settings again. The snow up there should be melting soon and then the roads will open.<\/p>\n<p>Life <em>is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n<p>Mia<\/p>\n<p>Click <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wild-turkeys\/\">here<\/a><\/span> to see more of my Wild Turkey photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;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&#8217;d love to get photos of turkeys in more natural settings again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":137251,"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":[27,1148,26,3793],"tags":[4540,6010,4070,4870,4871,4359,3795,3796,5501,401,3794],"class_list":["post-67257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-utah","category-wild-turkeys","tag-alert","tag-curious","tag-female","tag-hay","tag-hay-bales","tag-hen","tag-meleagris-gallopavo","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\/2024\/11\/wild-turkey-hen-curious-hay-mia-mcpherson-7473.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-huN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":62253,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/12\/29\/hay-bales-and-wild-turkeys\/","url_meta":{"origin":67257,"position":0},"title":"Hay Bales And Wild Turkeys","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 29, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The best chance I had of getting some frame filling images of birds was when I spotted a small flock of Wild Turkeys on top of some hay bales at a ranch.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Wild Turkeys on top of hay bales, Box Elder County, 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":63933,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/02\/09\/wild-turkeys-hay-bales-and-the-noisy-diesel-pickup-that-chased-them-away\/","url_meta":{"origin":67257,"position":1},"title":"Wild Turkeys, Hay Bales And The Noisy Diesel Pickup That Chased Them Away","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 9, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"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.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Colorful Wild Turkey and its shadow, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/wild-turkey-hay-mia-mcpherson-7587.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-hay-mia-mcpherson-7587.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/wild-turkey-hay-mia-mcpherson-7587.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/wild-turkey-hay-mia-mcpherson-7587.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":67257,"position":2},"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 &quot;Birds&quot;","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":74216,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/09\/30\/autumn-wild-turkey-close-up-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":67257,"position":3},"title":"Autumn Wild Turkey Close Up 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 &quot;Birds&quot;","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, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/wild-turkey-close-up-mia-mcpherson-1786.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/wild-turkey-close-up-mia-mcpherson-1786.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":66981,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/03\/13\/wild-turkey-hen-in-sage\/","url_meta":{"origin":67257,"position":4},"title":"Wild Turkey Hen In Sage","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 13, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday I was able to photograph a Wild Turkey hen in sage. Not culinary sage but the wild sage we have here in northern Utah.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Wild Turkey hen in sagebrush, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/wild-turkey-in-sage-mia-mcpheson-7826.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-in-sage-mia-mcpheson-7826.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/wild-turkey-in-sage-mia-mcpheson-7826.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/wild-turkey-in-sage-mia-mcpheson-7826.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":96163,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/10\/11\/autumn-wild-turkey-hen-portrait\/","url_meta":{"origin":67257,"position":5},"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 &quot;Birds&quot;","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, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/wild-turkey-hen-autumn-mia-mcpherson-5183.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}