![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/wild-turkey-1398-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"wild-turkey-1398-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nIn the fall when I’m in turkey country I’m always on the outlook for a cooperative Wild Turkey that might allow me a photo or two that would be appropriate for my annual Thanksgiving blog post. Ideally it would be a photo of a displaying Tom but displaying Toms are hard to come by in the fall so I if I want to use a photo taken recently I usually have to settle for some other photo I like of a Wild Turkey.<\/p>\n
As usual, this fall I struck out with displaying Toms.<\/p>\n
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1\/4000, f\/5.6, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Every time I encountered turkeys up close they were always in poor light or feeding with their heads down, often both. I just got lucky with this photo, taken on November 24th, because even though I kept this Tom in my viewfinder for a long time, he was usually feeding so he simply refused to raise his head and give me a photogenic pose.<\/p>\n I can thank a deer hunter for forcing him to at least raise his head. When three shots from a nearby rifle (or rifles) rang out, that perked him up real quick. So I was able get a few reasonably good photos of him before he decided all was safe and went back to his foraging.<\/p>\n But I’m still not impressed with this photo enough to use it as my primary image for my Thanksgiving post.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/7.1, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n So I’ll use this one.<\/p>\n It’s an older photo but it’s of a displaying Tom in good light. I like it for a lot of reasons, including the fact that his beard is so easily seen but especially because his snood<\/a><\/span><\/span> is flying every which way. Usually, it’s hanging straight down but just before the photo was taken he gave his head a slight shake so his snood had a mind of its own.<\/p>\n To say the least it gives him a distinctive, if undignified, look. I hope you enjoy it.<\/p>\n Happy Thanksgiving everyone.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Note: Blog subscribers may have wondered why my post email looked so ‘different’ this morning (very wordy with no tags, etc.) It’s because I accidentally clicked the Publish button too early, when I meant to click the Save Draft button. Haven’t done that for a while.<\/em><\/p>\n I should have known I’d been sitting here for too long without refilling my coffee cup.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the fall when I’m in turkey country I’m always on the outlook for a cooperative Wild Turkey that might allow me a photo or two that would be appropriate for my annual Thanksgiving blog post. (2 photos)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/wild-turkey-5813-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"wild-turkey-5813-ron-dudley\\"")
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