Oh you're such a Turkey!

[MEB]

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I stopped by a local nature center because there are frequently deer there. Instead, there was a flock of wild turkeys wandering around that had completely lost their fear of humans. These birds are totally wild and unrestrained...they just didn't care that I was standing 10 feet away. For those who are not familiar with these birds, they stand over a meter tall and they weigh 12-20 pounds. They can run as fast as a horse and they can fly at amazing speeds when they want to. They bear very little resemblance to barnyard turkeys that are so fat they can hardly stand up. These are mature males...you can tell by the long stringy feathers hanging from the base of their necks, called beards.

 

Benjamin Franklin wanted them to be our national bird but the bald eagle won that contest. M9 with 35 Lux asph. LR 2.6 and sharpened with NIK software.

Thanks for looking,

 

Mark Blumer

 

 

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[storybrown]

They're called "Turkey's" because their size & general exoticism reminded the just arrived in America English colonists of such things from the mysterious East & available in western Europe & Britain through the Turks, Grand Bazaar, &c. This especially impressed Franklin. Similarly, also, incidentally, with the blue stone now everywhere associated with Southwestern US pueblo & herding Indians: "Turquoise," French word for the stone obtainable from Turkey, long the world's main source of the mineral. Here endeth the lesson.

 

Nice tones & expression on the jakes. Thanks for posting . . .

[pauledell]

Mark,

 

Great shots especially the first. Excellent composition, colors and sharpness.

I prefer to leave these as is and have my turkey dinners from Butterball.

 

Paul

[stuny]

Mark -

 

Excellent. Every now and then I'll see a female wandering in Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan.

[MEB]

Thanks all for the comments. Stu, I'm amazed that one of these got to lower Manhattan island. They can fly fast and acrobatically, but I don't know for how far. I wouldn't expect them to be able to fly across the Hudson from NJ for instance.

 

Incidentally, they were nearly extinct in Michigan until the 1960's. A re-population program by the state DNR was fabulously successful and now there are tens of thousands of them all over the state.

 

Thanks for looking,

Mark Blumer

[roguewave]

Thanks all for the comments. Stu, I'm amazed that one of these got to lower Manhattan island. They can fly fast and acrobatically, but I don't know for how far. I wouldn't expect them to be able to fly across the Hudson from NJ for instance.

 

Incidentally, they were nearly extinct in Michigan until the 1960's. A re-population program by the state DNR was fabulously successful and now there are tens of thousands of them all over the state.

 

Thanks for looking,

Mark Blumer

 

Mark, we have one of the best bird domains in the NE. It's called Central Park. There are well over 100 different bird watching clubs in NYC. In fact, I see more members of those clubs on a regular basis than almost any other group, including tourists. We have in fact a number of exceptional ornithologists that give free lectures & the increase in large predators (falcons, raptors...) is testament to the size & variety that call Central Park home. One of my greatest pleasures is looking out my windows on the seventh floor & watching seagulls & other large span predators gliding around & looking for prey. It's not uncommon to find them attacking pigeons & smaller pray in mid flight. Yes New York City is WILD!

[vla]

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beautiful shots, i especially like #1.

markus