To Those Who Make it All Possible….

Happy Mother’s Day!

Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.

Dancing with the Turkey Vultures

As the climate warms, species that one might customarily see rarely sometimes become more visible.  Turkey vultures are now very common in central New England, whereas before, they were more common on Cape Cod.  Further south, they are quite common.  On our recent visit to Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, we happened to encounter a flock of turkey vultures, hanging about in some wonderfully abstract looking trees.

I know, everyone really wants to know if we saw the ponies.  Yes, we did, but they were, shall we say, working.  They hang out in the marsh and they eat.  My lens, though long, wasn’t long enough but more frustratingly, not once did they look up from their work so that I could get a shot with them looking at me.  Pictures of ponies with their heads in the marsh grass are, at least in my opinion, rather boring. So, not  wanting to be a turkey (sorry), we decided to hang with the turkey vultures.

I’ve been told on good authority (by my daughter, who really is a great authority) that when we think we’re seeing hawks in the sky, we may well be seeing turkey vultures.  They are about the same size (the turkey vultures appearing to be just a bit bigger), but they are far more social it seems to me.

However, social, on this day it wasn’t clear how well they were getting along.  They seemed very restless.

Of course, spring was in the air, and you know what that means.

Leaving us with much to consider.

Tech note:  All images shot with a Nikon D700 and 28 – 300 lens.  That lens is supposed to be mediocre at best according to “the internet.”  ”The internet” is wrong on that score.  Converted to black and white in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Teamwork

Common photographic subjects can still be fun to shoot.  Most everyone in New England I would guess has at least one or two turkey siting stories, even in the city. They tend to travel in groups, sometimes with as many as 60 partners.  They do seem to work together well (at least it appears that way) and as such often end up walking or flying in interesting formations.  (And yes, wild turkeys can actually fly, at least some can, if they feel like it.)  These two were part of a team of maybe eight or nine crossing the road that runs through Quabbin Park in Belchertown, Massachusetts.  They aren’t terribly afraid of people, but they did move along at a pretty good pace.  This is a good example of why it is helpful to always have access to your camera.  This shot required rolling down the window and hitting the shutter. I took about 20 shots over the course of maybe 30 seconds, and this was the best.

Commonplace, but still fun.  Turkeys of course lead an interesting life.  As I mentioned, they tend to travel if flocks or foraging groups.  The groups are composed of nearly all females and one male.  The male does, as near as I can tell, absolutely nothing, particularly with regard to the raising of young.  This perhaps sheds light on the origins of the phrase, “you turkey!”

“Commonplace” though actually doesn’t capture the whole story.  Turkeys were of course hunted to regional extinction in the 1800′s.  There were for all practical purposes no turkeys in most of New England by the early 1900′s.  Why the resurgence?  There was opportunity, in the form of significant reforestation. There was also human intervention.  The turkeys we see here are largely the result of restocking programs in which wild turkeys were brought from other parts of the country, back to what was once one of their main homes.  It worked.  Sometimes the best of human intentions actually achieve a desired outcome.