{"id":2790,"date":"2014-03-18T20:31:11","date_gmt":"2014-03-19T01:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/?p=2790"},"modified":"2014-03-18T22:39:09","modified_gmt":"2014-03-19T03:39:09","slug":"turkey-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/2014\/03\/18\/turkey-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have some exciting news to share with you this week.\u00a0 Kathy Adams Clark, her\u00a0husband, Gary and I have\u00a0partnered on a new book from Far Country Press called\u00a0“Texas – A Photographic Journey”.\u00a0\u00a0 You can find it on Amazon or at\u00a0Barnes & Noble, Costco and many of the state’s other book stores and nature centers.\u00a0\u00a0Take a quick look at the promotional ad below and consider adding this one to your library.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Reading\u00a0it will be like taking a \u00a0trip across\u00a0Texas to\u00a0see\u00a0our cities,\u00a0historic sites,\u00a0and natural wonders.<\/p>\n

\"PR-Texas_APJ-email-1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Several\u00a0mornings this past week, I visited\u00a0a nearby\u00a0south Texas ranch to photograph\u00a0wild turkeys as their mating season begins.\u00a0 The weather was fantastic and, as always, the ranch country\u00a0was beautiful at sunrise.<\/p>\n

Now, here are some of the\u00a0photos from\u00a0last week’s ranch trips:\u00a0 Just click on the right side of a photo and it will open in a larger, sharper format.\u00a0 There are “next” and “previous” arrows on the\u00a0sides to advance help you advance through the images.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Over 100 turkeys left the roost at first light and headed out to spend the day feeding, courting and such.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Male<\/a>
Male turkeys are scattered up and down this path used by the hens to reach a favored feeding area.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Big<\/a>
Big “Tom” turkeys strutting their stuff for the ladies.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Each<\/a>
Each gobbler spreads its tail, ruffles it feathers, drags its wings and fills its wattles and snood with bright red blood in the hope of looking stronger and more handsome\u00a0than the other males.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Excited<\/a>
Excited males respond in unison to any loud noise or another turkey’s gobble.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"This<\/a>
This big gobbler was in a hurry to reach the meadow and begin strutting his stuff as the hens arrived.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Notice that most of these images were made at ground level either hand-holding the 100-400 mm lens and camera or sitting in the grass with the big 500 mm lens and camera on a shortened tripod.\u00a0 This low perspective always brings the viewer into a more personal relationship with the image.\u00a0 It’s almost like being another turkey in the flock.\u00a0 * I know…some of you are saying “another turkey is right in this case”.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The idea is “never give up the strut”. Sooner or later one of the hens will be ready to mate and this big bird wants to be first in line.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Gobbler<\/a>
Gobbler and hen, each very much aware of the other’s presence.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In case you never noticed, male turkeys have black-tipped covert (body) feathers and females have buff-tipped feathers.\u00a0 This certainly gives the females\u00a0some advantage of camouflage while\u00a0nesting .\u00a0 Of course, they are ground nesters like their cousins the quail, chickens, pheasants and such.<\/p>\n

\"Several<\/a>
Several excited gobblers are determined to take out their aggression on a buck white-tailed deer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The buck deer and the gobblers seemed to enjoy this confrontation.\u00a0 Mostly, it was posturing, but the turkeys did try hitting their victim with those powerful wings until they realized he wasn’t backing down.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A group of fulvous whistling ducks headed up the coast for more suitable habitat.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Yucca_MG_1294\"<\/a>
Spanish Dagger in bloom…another sign that\u00a0spring has arrived in south Texas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

While roaming the ranch last week (right after a cold front passed), I saw a mesquite tree full of male Baltimore orioles.\u00a0 So, the spring migration has begun for many species.<\/p>\n

Hope you enjoyed this time with the flock.<\/p>\n

Larry<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have some exciting news to share with you this week.\u00a0 Kathy Adams Clark, her\u00a0husband, Gary and I have\u00a0partnered on a new book from Far Country Press called\u00a0“Texas – A Photographic Journey”.\u00a0\u00a0 You can find it on Amazon or at\u00a0Barnes & Noble, Costco and many of the state’s other book stores and nature centers.\u00a0\u00a0Take a … Continue reading Turkey Time<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsletter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2790"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2810,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2790\/revisions\/2810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}