A Face Only a Mother Can Love

(January 8th) Back after the New Year Holiday I headed out to the great new find I discovered before I left, Kensington Metropark. It was a gorgeous day and sure enough the wildlife did not disappoint. The highlight of the day were the Wild Turkeys I found. I saw maybe a dozen during the morning and they were fantastic. When I first saw them, they were a little bit shy, but they soon warmed up and tolerated my presence.

It wasn't just turkeys, there were a bunch of other birds in the great conditions. As always, the Tufted Titmice were everywhere. They're such charming birds that I never tire of them. I especially liked the snow still on the beak of this bird.

When I say the turkeys warmed up, they came right in. Some of them walked up to a couple of feet away from me at which point the lens would no longer focus. These birds have some gorgeous feathers with strange iridescence. The iridescence was super hard to capture - the tonal range is all over the map. The light was very soft, but still lost some of the range. I don't know how to capture it - in overcast conditions the range would be less, but the iridescence would be gone. I have to think on that one... While their feathers may be nice, and they're quite cool, no way around it but their head is just plain ugly. Here's a tom in excruciating detail.