Saturday, April 9, 2016

Toms

This morning my brother Eric and I did some bird photography out in the little Lake Valley. The House Finches were coming into the bird feeders like crazy. Afterwards we decided to go look for some wild turkeys on the way home. We spotted two young toms on one of the roads in Brooktrails. When they trotted down one of the side streets and we decided to follow them. At the edge of a clearing we stepped out of the pick up to photograph them. Suddenly they stopped in their tracks. Off to our left a group of eight large toms came rushing off a hillside at a full run towards them. They surrounded the young turkeys and began kicking and battering them with their wings and bodies. It all happened very quickly. Eventually the young tom broke away with the large group of toms in pursuit. They chased them downhill away from the clearing. When they were satisfied that they had chased the young interlopers from their territory the big toms came back up the hill. By then I had regained my senses and got in a good position myself to photograph a couple of them as they came by me. What an exciting event! May you have a blessed day, chris all images created with a Canon 7D and a Tamron 150-600mm lens. #TeamCanon

4 comments:

  1. Glorious birds. Thank you, Chris.

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    1. Thanks so very much for dropping by and commenting, brucejamieson42. They sure do put on a colorful display during this time of the year.

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  2. Love the first photo, such a cute look. Those Toms were really puffed and displaying. That was quite the sight to see I bet.

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    1. Shelly, it was really a beautiful sight. The big toms attack was really interesting to observe as they wanted those two young toms out of their territory and away from their hens.

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