If I wander the trails of Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge for a long enough period of time, I am quite likely to encounter some Wild Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo). I have seen them in almost all parts of the refuge and suspect that there are several flocks that reside there.
Last Monday I encountered a small flock that appeared to include a half-dozen or so turkeys. They were scratching about at the edge of one of the trails and did not seem to notice me as I slowly made my way forward. All of the sudden, one of the turkeys flapped its wings a little as if to sound an alarm, as you can see in the second image below. All of the turkeys started to move and slowly disappeared into the underbrush. I was thrilled to capture the first image as they were striding away.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Wonderful captures, Mike!
Last week I saw a flock of about a dozen out in the Texas hill country. It’s been a good while since I’ve seen any, but as you can appreciate, I was traveling at about sixty mph, and if I’d made a move to stop for a photo, the turkeys would have hit their own accelerators.
Last spring I suddenly came upon a group of them in the middle of the city (Winnipeg) near my place which is not to far from a river. I hadn’t seen them that close to downtown before. I think the slowing down of car and foot traffic because of the pandemic made them more bold (along with a lot of other wild life) I looked at them and they looked at me. They moved off slowly. I was on my way to get groceries at the store beside us, so my camera was secured in my backpack. I only got a couple of shots that weren’t so great. A few days later they made the evening news. 🦃 😊
Good shots!
Thanks, Molly.
Is there any creature you don’t stumble upon? Incredible. Mike in the Wild. Wildlife Whisperer. (Thinking of titles for your televised show)
I don’t stumble upon all of the creatures, Laura, but I try. Unlike in the house in the poem The Night Before Christmas (its real title is “A Visit from St. Nicholas”), there is always a creature stirring in somewhere in the natural world that I so much enjoy visiting. It would be tough to make a television series of my “adventures”–so much of my time is spent in what would look to be aimless wandering. Many people, I feel, are much so impatient and goal-oriented that they might not appreciate my slow-paced almost meditative contemplation of nature.