Two turkeys, one big, one small, sat side by side on Mike Joyner’s dinner table. Weighing 15 pounds, the big one was a plump, store-bought bird like those sitting on millions of Americans’ tables this Thanksgiving Day.

The small one was a jake—a juvenile male wild turkey—that weighed about five pounds. Joyner, an avid hunter and author of six books on turkey hunting , shot it a little over a month ago. Both birds tasted similar, he said, though the wild one had a bit less fat, and its dark meat was richer in flavor.

But the wild turkey was special in another way: Joyner harvested it near his home in McGraw, making it the first fall turkey from Central New York to grace his family’s Thanksgiving table in 10 years.

And not for lack of trying. Joyner scouts for turkeys half the year. If

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