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Took Peg for a walk in the woods at South Mtn. Reservation yesterday; just a 20-minute drive from home. It's about 2000 acres of lovely forest on a ridge... Essex County's largest park.    There's a paved trail for cyclists and skaters, and also many dirt trails like this one, for walking only. The fence delineates a small "deer management area", but deer and other critters run loose all over the park. Peg tends to hold up these walks so she can carefully sniff where every other dog has been in the last week or so...





Speaking of critters: spied this fellow by the entrance road on the way in- he saw my car and turned to explain to his mate that she should not come up onto the road just yet. Or is it a female? Not sure... I think the males have spurs, but I can't really tell in this photo. Damned autofocus-!






I love it here, especially on a nice fall afternoon.





Peg also likes to stop so she can wallow and drink water... no, that's not a sewer pipe, it's a conduit allowing this stream to pass under the trail. this is pretty high ground for this area; no industrial runoff, not even from houses. This land was set aside a long time ago, right on top of the ridge.









Looking East from one of the pullovers on the paved trail, one gets a pretty good view. Trees were blocking the NYC skyline where I stopped, so here's a look at the Bayonne Bridge, which connects Bayonne, NJ to Staten Island.





Next: part 2 (last)

ah..looks a lot like most of the back country that I run through every time I go to school.. I love this time of year...perhaps tomorrow I'll get out of class early enough to be able to stop and take some pictures up my the big lake/resevoir..

Thanks for posting those wonderful shots..

cool shots. That birds awfully brave for this time of year:) I mean that could have been a rifle scope.

cool shots. That birds awfully brave for this time of year:) I mean that could have been a rifle scope.

No hunting allowed there, but I have seen this particular type of turkey all over the area, and they're very bold. Great at running and hiding from 4-legged predators, but not very wary of the 2-legged kind, as far as I can tell.  Although if I'd been on foot, they might've run off. Cars probably look like cattle to them...

Wonderful colours Rotty

Very nice. Makes me wish I'd gone to our local woods a couple of weeks ago before the bad weather set in but we can't compete with that.

Speaking of critters: spied this fellow by the entrance road on the way in- he saw my car and turned to explain to his mate that she should not come up onto the road just yet. Or is it a female? Not sure... I think the males have spurs, but I can't really tell in this photo. Damned autofocus-!

Not wishing to teach my grandma to suck eggs but it looks like you focussed on the tree behind the turkey. This gives the background foliage a nice soft look. I've found that you can get lots of different effects on Auto by focussing on different parts of the subject.

PS. Don't forget that you can take as many shots as you like with a digital camera. This is great for experimenting with things like this.

Very nice. Makes me wish I'd gone to our local woods a couple of weeks ago before the bad weather set in but we can't compete with that.

Not wishing to teach my grandma to suck eggs but it looks like you focussed on the tree behind the turkey. This gives the background foliage a nice soft look. I've found that you can get lots of different effects on Auto by focussing on different parts of the subject.

PS. Don't forget that you can take as many shots as you like with a digital camera. This is great for experimenting with things like this.

You're right... but I was blocking the road, and the turkey wasn't likely to hang around for long, so i had only the one chance. Had him in the brackets in the viewfinder, but...
 If I'd disabled the autofocus first, it might've worked- but who thinks of that?

That turkey would look good with some cranberry sauce and sweet potatos!!!

"This particular Type of Turkey..." LOL, I didn't know the Wild Turkey breed came in many different Varieties...

It is in fact a wild turkey, and also a female, has no beard.

Nice shots Rotty. Looks a beautiful part of the world...