Turkeys In The Snow

     I got back from Mont Tremblant, Canada yesterday night. As soon as we pulled in, it started snowing hard. Finally, some real snow. This winter has been rainy and warm, and while the weather is nice, it isn't very wintery. The next morning, I wanted to take advantage of the fresh snow, and scaped the windshield at 7am, and I left for Mystic dam, Arlington. I thought I had a chance of getting bald eagles perched in the snow covered thickets that lines the lake. I waited an hour in the cold wind before giving up and driving to the screech owl in Belmont. Still, nothing. I figured i'de head back to Framingham and get shots of the Great Horned Owls. 

While I was driving there, through some fields in Lincoln, MA, I passed a little pond, with a pair of hooded mergansers bobbing in it. I pulled over, and walked to the pond to take some photos. I noticed some turkeys in the wood pile of the farm house, on my way over to the mergansers, they were cautious and ran for cover...

I approached the mergansers after shooting the turkeys for about 30 seconds. The pair did not flush, but they did quickly swim to the back of the pond when they saw me.

I did not want to flush them, so I shifted my attention back to the turkeys, one of which was crossing Trapelo Road. A car had to stop as the whole flock followed...

After about a minute, the entire flock of 6 turkeys had crossed. The other side of the road was a thick forest, with a path leading from the road to a clearing. They slowly headed in the direction of the clearing, and I followed them with my camera...

While the flock kept foraging towards the edge of the clearing, one of them lagged behind, and watched me curiously. I brought my lens all the way to it's 600mm zoom at only about 15 feet away, giving me some very detailed photos of the lagging turkey's head...

If you look closely, in both the above and below photo, you might notice a brown-grey spot just about a centimeter behind the bird's eye. That is the turkey's ear.

I can tell by the spurs on the back of the turkey's legs that this is a "bachelor group". Male turkeys, called "toms" will live in groups made only out of males during the winter, which will then divide up in the spring, as each male goes solo, in pursuit of females. In the photo below, a male turkey is making a call. Not their mating call that they are known for, but a quiet clucking that helps the flock re-group.

The lagging turkey displayed it's feathers as it flapped a few times to get some snow off his back...

...While another preened itself further down the clearing, probably also trying to get the snow off.

Eventually, the flock made it's way into the thick brush, down at the end of the clearing. I knew there was no hope of getting good pictures in that mess, so I walked back to my car.