Tom Turkey in the sun

We had a great show with two male toms and about seven females for several hours this morning. Here's one, I've got a zillion more shots to look at and process. They are huge and quite used to humans I guess. The hisses and humphs and gobbles are a bit scary at close range!

What's a Wattle Anyway?
The head and neck of turkeys have no feathers; rather it is covered with red, fleshy skin. A soft floppy growth on the front of the head, which dangles downward over the beak, is called the snood or dewbill. The turkey also has a pouchlike area at the front of his throat which is called a wattle. The head, neck, snood and wattle are all reddish colored until the male turkey begins to do his "strut" or mating dance at which time the entire area turns brilliantly bright red.  http://urbanext.illinois.edu/turkey/history.cfm


Wild Turkey info

I prefer these, 365 reds, or flickr color of the shot blipped, oh well...

Tail feathers from the rear

Side view in the shade

Dueling showboys

One of the hens

Front lawn strut

Tom and one of his flock

For the Record,
This day came in absolutely fabulous, a perfect SPRING day!!!

All hands healing.

Huh??