# Smokey Gray Hen Pics....



## Ack (Oct 3, 2004)

Just thouhgt I would share some pics that my mom took yesterday. She said this hen started coming in to their bird feeder with the other hens a couple days ago. My dad said that when he was hunting this spring he thought he saw a really light colored bird...well, here's the proof! Hopefully she is able to have some young ones that turn out to be the same color!


----------



## Ferris_StateHunter (Apr 24, 2006)

look for that girl in the fall!! she would be an awesome mount even w/o a beard


----------



## Linda G. (Mar 28, 2002)

very nice...see those long legs, long neck, lack of feathering on the neck and head? That's a wild turkey, as far as I can tell, at least, she looks wild. Every other photo I've seen in the last year or so of white birds were of domestic birds, no doubt about it, but this one truly looks wild. If she does have domestic blood at all, it's a couple of generations back. But she looks full blooded wild to me. 

Thanks for the photos...we have one up here that is sort of cream colored, we've been watching her for three years now. All wild.


----------



## Bucky (Mar 3, 2006)

cool pics


----------



## mwp (Feb 18, 2004)

very nice pics,and for sure that would amke an awesome mount!!


----------



## Sprytle (Jan 8, 2005)

Great pics ...

This one shows great comparision to a natural turkey.

I have never seen one of these myself in the wild...hopefully someday!!


----------



## Delevaine_270 (Jul 2, 2006)

I have a feeling that this 'white' gene is a genetic recessive thing. I somehow doubt it is domestic turkey's breeding in the wild ones. Afterall, where do you think the white gene comes from in white tailed deer. 

There was a hen up this way in the Remus area about 2 years ago. She was the same exact thing. At first I too thought I was seeing someone's barnyard pet running out with the wild flocks. The first time I saw the hen was in the neighbor's field. The next time I saw her was a week later in the spring. She was traveling with a group of 60 or so down our road. I had pictures but my floppy disks went haywire before I could transfer the 15 or so photos I had of her onto a disk. This was months before I owned a computer with cd burner capabilities. 

Sad part is I haven't seen this hen since and figure some bright one shot her... Sorry but that's one place I don't agree with most. I would of left her if anything but to see more like her. No more than would I shoot a deer with excessive white.


----------



## Linda G. (Mar 28, 2002)

More likely a fox or a hawk or an owl grabbed her. They stick out, they're an anomaly of nature, and they don't last long, for that reason. 

Most of the white birds I've seen were domestic, or part domestic, and there was no doubt about it. You could tell from what I noted about, the length of the legs, extra featheration, etc. There's too many white turkeys running around Michigan for them all to be wild, as wild white ones are extremely rare. This one's wild, but she's not an albino. She would be legal game, and preserving them doesn't do anything to promote more white birds. Do a gene study or color pigment study and you'd find that even if she lived a long life, most of her chicks would be normal colored. That's how the genes work. And only one in 50,000 wild turkeys or so is white like this. 

Whitetailed deer have nothing to do, genetically, with birds.


----------



## weatherby (Mar 26, 2001)

Sweet lookin hen


----------



## Gobblerman (Dec 19, 2004)

Awesome pics, I've never seen one in the wild myself. What a cool sight.


----------



## hunting man (Mar 2, 2005)

They are fairly common in the Allegan Forest birds. All the states birds came from this flock originaly. So the light colored birds could show up most anywhere really.


----------



## Linda G. (Mar 28, 2002)

Sorry, but you're incorrect when you state that all the state's wild turkeys originally came from the Allegan flock. We have received a number of other birds since the Allegan flock from Iowa, Pennsylvania, and Missouri. Check the history with the DNR. The Allegan birds were one of the first flocks imported, but are not responsible for all the birds we have today.


----------



## hunting man (Mar 2, 2005)

right not all of them. All the same though. I would venture a guess we have the genes from the original Allegan flock spread all over the state.


----------



## glockman55 (Mar 9, 2006)

I saw a white one the other day, she was in with about 8 other young ones. Looked like she was one of the brood. The Mother hen was with them. Cool Pic.


----------



## Bomba (Jul 26, 2005)

I have been seeing one that looks exactly as that one in my yard for the
last three weeks. She has six chicks with her and they all appear to
be dark colored...


----------



## wild bill (Apr 20, 2001)

i have a couple i been seeing the past 3 years behind the house. look to be true wild turkeys. both have young ones this year that are normal coloring. i will try and dig up a few pics and scan them when i have some time. hoping for a fall tag to take at least one of them should make a cool mount


----------



## wild bill (Apr 20, 2001)

ok heres a couple pics. there not the best cause there 35mm scans.










this ones hard to tell but its the middle turkey.


----------



## Airoh (Jan 19, 2000)

Those are great
Thanks for posing them


----------



## chrisu (Dec 7, 2004)

Cool pics!​


----------

