March 5 -- Talking Turkey, Both Wild and Vulture...

I met fellow wildlife photographer, full-time RVer and good friend OP at the Overton Wildlife Management Area for a morning of touring the wildlife area's roads, armed with our Canon 500mm f/4 lenses. We stabilized our lenses by using Molar Bean Bags that are draped over the open driver's and passenger's side windows, so we can shoot out of the truck which acts as a "blind". The ducks especially are still skittish from hunting season and seemingly take off even if you THINK of looking in their direction... OP and I have good luck from the get-go, when when spot a flock of Wild Turkeys in a field, with the males displaying --

I have to say that I find the male Wild Turkeys spectacularly ugly, looking somewhat like the alien in Ridley Scott's movie, only more colorful. 

The males were "flexing their feathers" , but they weren't exactly getting an overwhelming response --

"Ho-hum", this one seems to be saying...But it was fun to watch, and excellent behavioral viewing. We then drove in the direction of the "Bald Eagle tree", where the adult Bald Eagle is regularly perched during this time of the morning -- but he/she proved elusive, flapping away when OP put her big lens out the window in preparation for shooting. The roads were thankfully in fairly decent condition, given the recent rain, and were just damp enough to lessen the dust that usually fills the air when driving. We spied some Turkey Vultures on perches low to the ground (for them), almost eye-level, so we drove as close as we dared and got some nice portraits, with the mesa for  backdrop --

My friend and another fellow photographer, Roger Hogan, once said that the mark of a good Turkey Vulture portrait is if you can see through its nose hole to the other side; I think this one qualifies --

There were at one time 3 perched in the same area; here are 2 --

Then I had a minor run-in while maneuvering on a dirt road just outside of the wildlife area to get a good angle on Great Blue Heron nests in a large tree when a fellow in a truck pulled-up behind mine; he and I got out of our trucks and he told us we weren't supposed to be in that area -- "Didn't you see the signs?" once again -- and that if he caught us again, he'd "ticket" us as he was a game warden. The rules here seem to be pretty flexible and appear to depend on who you encounter...After getting OP some great photo-ops of a Greater Roadrunner perched on a branch on her side of the road, we went to The Inside Scoop , an eatery I can highly recommend that serves hamburgers, sandwiches, hot dogs, etc and is also a ice cream shop, for lunch then we split up to do other things for the afternoon. I did laundry ($1.50 in quarters to use the washer here at Robbins Nest RV Park, not bad considering what I've paid elsewhere) then chores around Discovery, including taking off the Gorilla Tape I'd placed under the front rock guard to stave off any water intrusion in preparation for using a product called PermaSeal, a spray-on, clear "rubberized coating" that is waterproof. But after looking at the directions I realized it would involve buying a roller to even out the coating, so decided to apply it another day, and spent the rest of the day -- resting, as today (the 6th) will be another road trip to the Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve, this time with OP...