World's Ugliest Bird

I get flocks of them in my yard. Tried taking photos but they are super skittish. They do like to crap everywhere.
 
The reason there are always birds and deer around is because of the rules. Well, except for the instruments and weddings ones, those are just weird. But you're not allowed to pick flowers or mess with the resident critters in any state or national park. Many of the stricter ones with lots of traffic, like Yellowstone, you will most definitely earn a ranger lecture for going off the marked paths (unless you get a permit). You aren't supposed to take rocks or seashells either (although around here, the seashell thing is pretty much ignored). The rules have been standard for at least a couple of decades now.
The birds and deer were there long before it was a state park. The area used to belong to a railroad and was used as a water reservoir for steam engines at a rail yard a few miles away. Once steam engines started to die off it was converted to a hunting preserve for the railroad executives. Hunting was stopped in 1923 and the area became a nature preserve, but still owned by the railroad. They sold it to a developer in 1962 who wanted to put in a subdivision but was unable to get all of the necessary permits due to public pressure. It was purchased by the state in 1973 and became Tennessee's first official state natural area. Yes, I did have to Google all of that ;)

The thing that annoys me about the never-ending rules is that regardless of what anyone says to the contrary that area is absolutely no different in any way whatsoever from the land surrounding it, however they like to pretend it is a "Fragile Forest" (signs are up that state exactly that). There are no plants or anything else on one side of the boundary fence that aren't also on the other side yet they pretend that everyone walking around there is about to damage something that is present nowhere else in the world and on the verge of extinction.

And, yes, I am well aware that all of the state and national parks are much the same. I collect National Park Passport stamps and at last count have collected 169 of them. I've visited national and state parks from St. Augustine, FL to Santa Monica, CA and most of the states in between (25, I think. The link above is to my site and lists all the stamps I've collected). I even understand the reasoning behind most of them, however some of the rules here are absolutely ridiculous.
 
I honestly never paid attention to the look of a turkey before. I always just see them at the dinner table haha. They are really interesting looking creatures. The feathers are what I'm most drawn to. Nice shots! Like others have mentioned the sharpness looks amazing.

Thanks, glad you like them. I had never paid them much attention either until I started getting interested in bird photography. Now I go out and look for things like them ;)
 
I get flocks of them in my yard. Tried taking photos but they are super skittish. They do like to crap everywhere.

Lord, I hope the park people don't find that out! They would try to fine them for crapping all over the park.

They are normally very skittish. These are virtually tame though.
 
Yup some ugly birds. Nice set of shots. We have wild turkeys all over the place around here. Not hard to get close to them at all. I also shoot with the Sigma 150-500mm lens. Very nice lens easy to hand hold and great for the price.
 
I think Turkeys are beautiful. I'm a nature freak, though. I love the first picture you took. The feathers almost look like they're made of metal.

I hadn't noticed that but you're right. The feathers to have a metallic sheen to them. Thanks for pointing it out, that is pretty cool ;)
 
Yup some ugly birds. Nice set of shots. We have wild turkeys all over the place around here. Not hard to get close to them at all. I also shoot with the Sigma 150-500mm lens. Very nice lens easy to hand hold and great for the price.

I hear them all over the place around here, but don't see them that often.

I agree about the lens. Dollar for dollar it's hard to beat, although Tamron has one that CostalConn gets excellent results from. The tripod collar really makes it easy to hand-hold. I really like mine, and if I had to get another one I wouldn't hesitate.
 

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