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Monday, April 19, 2010

Turkeys in Florida

We drove many of the dirt roads along the St Johns river and one afternoon, Dick slammed the brakes on and said, (pointing that damned finger again!)


"There!'


I just wish I could have gotten closer to them. Once again the distance was a little too much for my camera, but I'm hoping you'll still enjoy these photographs.




Turkeys were re-introduced into the wild a few years ago in Ontario and happily, they are flourishing.  I guess they also placed birds in Florida and this flock was out for an afternoon stroll. Look at the size of these hens!




And then.... we spied this guy! Wow and Holy Moley!


He was magnificent!  I took so many pictures and really can't decide which to post, so here's a whole bunch of shots!




 He kept ruffling his feathers. And strut... strut... strut!




And like any good woman, the hens followed along a respectable six or so paces behind!




He kept turning and waiting, or maybe he was urging this hen on?




 Back down with the tail and a few struts more.




 This is a cropped picture of one of the hens so you could see some detail.




I would guess they were heading to the river's edge?




This is full zoom with my camera and this photo is downloaded directly out of the camera and onto this blog.  Isn't he amazing!




I cropped this for some detail. He seriously seemed to be posing!




And then, as if he tired of the game, (or realized I was not a threat,) he turned and ...




...Off he headed


I can't tell you how thrilled we were to see them!


Except for the two pictures I labeled as cropped, all of these photos were again shot and loaded directly from my Nikon P90 and then posted without alteration of any kind.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Great photos! We had 17 of them in our back yard last winter!

Brian Miller said...

oh wow. too cool...and look at him showing off...great shots!

Lori E said...

Okay is this some national turkey day or something?
This is the second post I have come across in the last 5 minutes with a picture of turkeys. Wow. How random is that.
I mentioned to her that I thought they look like they are related to peacocks. I wonder.

ethelmaepotter! said...

Magnificent gobbler! I took pictures of nineteen of them in my yard a few weeks ago, but the rain was coming down so hard, the photos turned out terrible. I'm hoping they'll make a return appearance on a clear day.

Anonymous said...

Of course, here in NE Pa. we have a lot of Turkeys & now with my traveling to Scranton & back I have seen many all fanned out!! It is that time of the year when Mr. Tom is trying to impress the ladies!! LOL!!
Have a Wonderful Day!!
Love,
Marilyn
xxoo

Judy said...

Awesome captures. We don't see wild turkeys around our home ever.

EG CameraGirl said...

I would have been thrilled too! I have looked for them here...but lately they have been hiding!

DJan said...

I haven't ever seen any in the wild like that. I had even forgotten about the display with the tail feathers until you showed it here. I can see why you were so thrilled! Thanks for sharing these great shots!

Everyday Goddess said...

Great pics! Nice to meet you!