Pieball Turkeys

[tippit]

I was driving a back road to my farm yesterday here in Aiken, SC when I saw two strutting Toms right beside the road with either 3 or 4 hens or jakes.  To my shock, one Tom had an all White tail, brown chest, and a thick 6+ inch beard.  The other Tom had less white and more mottled.  I was so amazed I never got a look at the other birds.  They are definitely wild birds and I know where I'll be next spring...tippit

[zipper bowss]

Very cool!!
We call them smoke phase up here. There are not a lot of them around our area.
Bill

[SELFBOW19953]

I keep hoping to see a smoke phase tom, all I've seen are hens.  With my luck, I'll have a whole flock come by me this fall-Delaware's only turkey season is the spring gobbler season.

[Nantahala Nut]

I saw a hen here in western nc a couple years ago that was odd.  Had a light orange/brown coloring to her. Haven't seen her or the big flock she was a part of since then.  Used to run with 22 other hens.

It's not piebald. It is called "smokey grey color phase". I saw a couple this year also. They are really neat. If I ever get the chance to take one, it will get mounted.

  http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-153-10363_10958_10969-276708--,00.html  

  http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=514&objID=622255&mode=2  

Bisch

[Whip]

If there aren't pictures it didn't happen.   :p    

[Over&Under]

There were a few in the flock I hunted this year and managed to get one:)

   

[FerretWYO]

Awesome Jake

[dhermon85]

Very cool

[Keith Zimmerman]

And I got the wings:)

[MO Bow]

what you don't see is the barn full of Butterballs-to-be behind the cameraman!

i kid!

very, very cool.  that would make an awesome tail mount!

[Whitetail Addict]

Cool bird O/U, thanks for sharing. Never seen one personally. I do notice quite a difference at times, in the  color variations of our eastern birds here. Nothing drastic, but differences. I saw a hen not long ago, that didn't appear to have any white in her primary wing feathers.

The bird I posted pictures of in the New york Turkey Hunting Thread had some lighter colored feathers than usual in his fan, with very light baring on them

I guess birds and animals are like people. We're all the same, but a little different at the same time. Though my girlfriend tells me that I'm a little more different than most, lol. Thanks again.

Bob

There are some different turkeys showing up around small farm groves twenty miles away from any woods that have core flocks in Iowa.  I asked one farmer that had about 8 birds behind his grove if they were his. He said, "they are now". Then I asked if they were wild.  He said, "Depends what side of the barn they're on."  Since then I have had a number of farmers tell me that they are seeing turkeys in the groves and waterways.

[Duckbutt]

Jeff,

Those are escapees from the local turkey farm....

I owe you a phone call.  Will try you this weekend.

J

[SELFBOW19953]

Here are a few shots of smoke gray mutants I caught on a trail cam.

 
 
 
 

[Over&Under]

Thanks guys...pretty strange to see a grey/white one in a group of a bunch of dark brown ones, they stand out like a sore thumb:). They do eat well though:)

[tippit]

Thanks for letting me know what they are.  We live about 30 minutes from the NWTF in Edgefield, SC.  I did see a few Smokes mounts up there but to see a few live was really dramatic!  It was the one time that I almost thought about running off the road to hit one.  I'm going to try and locate them as I have permission to hunt that area.

[akaboomer]

I have only seen one bird that was a different color phase. It was a mature Tom in a fall group of mature toms. The parts that are normally dark were butterscotch to copper colored.  Very striking image feeding in a sunny hay field. Unfortunately we don't have a fall season and I couldn't try to capitalize on the close encounter.

Chris