Wild Turkey Hen In Sage

Wild Turkey hen in sagebrush – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/1600, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

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. I noticed in my photos of this hen that the sagebrush is starting to send out fresh leaves and that is a good indicator of spring. In fact I started to title this post “Spring Wild Turkey Hen In Sage” and then realized it really isn’t quite spring yet even though it felt like it yesterday.

There were toms in the small flocks I saw yesterday morning and some of them were displaying but I had a fence in front of those toms and I wasn’t able to get a single photo of them with their tails spread out that I was happy with. The hens were a bit easier for me to photograph because they were more out in the open.

This Wild Turkey hen was on the move when I photographed her and at first I didn’t care for this photo because the hen doesn’t stand out very well but then I realized that this image showed her in the habitat I find these large upland game birds in most often in Box Elder County and gave the photo a second look. I like to include habitat in my bird photos when I can and this image certainly does that.

Both times I was on flocks of Wild Turkeys yesterday two different pickup trucks went by and flushed them. That is a part of the frustrations of being a bird photographer, other people simply living their lives can disrupt photographing the birds. Stuff happens though and I was happy to have these big, beautiful birds in my viewfinder for as long as I did.

Life is good.

Mia

Click here to see more of my Wild Turkey photos plus facts and information about this species.