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Wild Tur-keys In Flight, Afternoon Delight!
Sunday, 8 January 2012 17:50Drove Off To Holland This Afternoon
It was beautiful clear blue skies this morning, high in the mid-40s. By 3:30pm, it was still 42°F, but scattered clouds and high wispy haze made it semi-overcast. Over on 104th Avenue some northbound yutz flashed his headlights rapidly on and off towards me for more than half a mile. Is there a problem? Ten foot flames shooting out from under the Bravada? He waved as he drove past -- no one I've ever seen. A short while later I spotted the sheriff's car parked on a cross road. Nice, but really -- he's out there looking for people who are`a hazardous nuisance on the road and Mr. Flashy Lights, you're not really helping, are you?
Much more interesting was somewhat further down, as I approached the first of two large dips in the road by stream beds. Something large seemed to have fluttered down by the road, partially hidden by the dip -- then another head. Vultures? No...
Wild Turkeys
We've seen wild turkeys around here before (DW). But this looked like a New York City light change and a glot of pedestrians crossing the road as the turkeys began to cross. And not one or two, but bunches.
I slowed down and pulled over. I had the Nikon D1X camera bag with me, but wasn't able to get out and get the camera out from the back seat in time.
Meanwhile the turkeys kept coming. And while I had been stopping they began taking flight, heading left to right, east to west. Soon they were launching into the sky from the other side of the road. All told we probably saw three dozen or more turkeys, flying up into the trees and settling on bare branches twenty to thirty feet off the ground. I didn't know wild turkeys did that.
Within moments the trees cleared of their large dark loads and they landed in a yard off to the west beyond the big stand of trees. I wasn't going to get any pictures. (sigh)
But it was a beautiful and lovely sight.
Low Odds
At least I had one of the Nikons with me. If I had the little Sony. it takes time to power on, then you have to farble with the zoom, then deal with the delays of shooting with a point-and-shoot. And I probably wouldn't have gotten the picture.
But you didn't get the picture, I hear you say. Yup. It happens. I'd say that trying to get shots of things like this is less than a 1-in-10 proposition. You just aren't going to get a lot of these shots. Not if you're practicing safe driving. So I understand.
But in my mind I see this glorious photo of this rising diagonal of these large birds taking flight and heading for the tress. You'd have liked it. (sad grin)
Dr. Phil
It was beautiful clear blue skies this morning, high in the mid-40s. By 3:30pm, it was still 42°F, but scattered clouds and high wispy haze made it semi-overcast. Over on 104th Avenue some northbound yutz flashed his headlights rapidly on and off towards me for more than half a mile. Is there a problem? Ten foot flames shooting out from under the Bravada? He waved as he drove past -- no one I've ever seen. A short while later I spotted the sheriff's car parked on a cross road. Nice, but really -- he's out there looking for people who are`a hazardous nuisance on the road and Mr. Flashy Lights, you're not really helping, are you?
Much more interesting was somewhat further down, as I approached the first of two large dips in the road by stream beds. Something large seemed to have fluttered down by the road, partially hidden by the dip -- then another head. Vultures? No...
Wild Turkeys
We've seen wild turkeys around here before (DW). But this looked like a New York City light change and a glot of pedestrians crossing the road as the turkeys began to cross. And not one or two, but bunches.
I slowed down and pulled over. I had the Nikon D1X camera bag with me, but wasn't able to get out and get the camera out from the back seat in time.
Meanwhile the turkeys kept coming. And while I had been stopping they began taking flight, heading left to right, east to west. Soon they were launching into the sky from the other side of the road. All told we probably saw three dozen or more turkeys, flying up into the trees and settling on bare branches twenty to thirty feet off the ground. I didn't know wild turkeys did that.
Within moments the trees cleared of their large dark loads and they landed in a yard off to the west beyond the big stand of trees. I wasn't going to get any pictures. (sigh)
But it was a beautiful and lovely sight.
Low Odds
At least I had one of the Nikons with me. If I had the little Sony. it takes time to power on, then you have to farble with the zoom, then deal with the delays of shooting with a point-and-shoot. And I probably wouldn't have gotten the picture.
But you didn't get the picture, I hear you say. Yup. It happens. I'd say that trying to get shots of things like this is less than a 1-in-10 proposition. You just aren't going to get a lot of these shots. Not if you're practicing safe driving. So I understand.
But in my mind I see this glorious photo of this rising diagonal of these large birds taking flight and heading for the tress. You'd have liked it. (sad grin)
Dr. Phil
