Turkeys at war.
Even though I shot these with my D300 I thought you all might find these interesting.
I have years in the wood hunting and photographing nature and hve never seen turkeys fight like this in the fall. The last one is one of the combatants--bloodied but
doing just fine.

[Ash]

Nasty, those birds. Good only on the dinner table...
My wife is petrified from them after a few bad childhood experiences with them attacking her.

[Nowhere Matt]

Every time I see turkeys off in a field I remember times I went hunting with my father.
Today we are sometimes dumbfounded that we would sit still in the woods in the early mornings or walk for miles and not get a shot off while today at times they seem to just strut right along a busy wooded but urban road.

[Marc Langille]

That's the first I've seen an actual fight Kent - usually it's strutting and flaring the feathers.

Maybe that's why I like the ladies - much quieter to photograph!

[SCGushue]

Kent,

Nice series of images. I have about four flocks of these guys that travel through our property on a regular basis. They vary anywhere from 13 to 40 in their respective prides.

The interesting thing in your captures is that you got them at all. Around here they are rediculously skittish and gone at the first movement.

I never seem to have a camera on hand when they move through the woods or across the open areas, but they generally don't hang around in the presence of humans.

Nice.

Stephen

[kent vinyard]

Thanks for the comments Marc and everyone. It was a truely wild scene.
There were probably 15 to 20 gobblers milling around and at least 2 or 3 different pairs of birds fighting. I think it was a territory dispute or something of that sort as there were no hens around. Like I said I have been in the woods as a hunter and photographer most of my life and I have never seen anything like it. Guess I was lucky.