Strutting His Stuff!

The Wild Turkey mating season normally begins slowly in early March before exploding in early April.  However the unseasonably warm weather we have experienced for more than a week has the woodlands resounding with the throaty gobbles of the big toms as they vie for mates. 

Wild Turkeys gobble and strut both mornings and evenings with morning activity usually the better.  Gobbling will usually begin before daylight while they are still on their overnight roost.  The early morning gobbling gives one the opportunity to locate the toms and set up in a likely spot for early morning action.

This series though was captured in the evening after I spotted a flock of hens accompanied by some attending gobblers feeding in an open field.  Seeing that a ravine may allow me to approach unseen I was able to stalk to within photography distance; capturing this big fellow Strutting His Stuff.