One Down

[WillowRidgeCalls]

The white on the bird is on his left side breast and neck, the feathers are the correct color they should be, but the tips have a creamy whitish color instead of a black tip, as you can see in the pic. The tail feathers didn't seem to still be growing? They aren't in the sheath yet and look to be a full grown feather, just that they are short. They have the full color as the other feathers do. Not sure just what's going on with this bird? There wasn't one bit of fat on him anywhere, and you'd think he should of been getting fatened up for winter? I looked the bird over closely to see if there were any other wounds on him and didn't see any. His crop was half full of corn, grass, and grasshoppers, so he's eatinng fine, but no fat on him anywhere? I guess he's a good bird to get out of the flock, with those short tail feathers and white tipped color phased breast feathers.

[charlie elk]

Nice bird there you showed me up , way to go and you know there are still tags available in #2.
I'm at 2 going on the bbq soon.

[WillowRidgeCalls]

Nice bird there you showed me up , way to go and you know there are still tags available in #2.
I'm at 2 going on the bbq soon.

Thanks charlie, this is going to be a fun fall for birds. I just set up and cold call. I've been out 3 times and had birds working twice. One of these years I'm going to have to try busting them and working them back in.

[Dixie Belle]

Looking good Scott!!! Congratulations. I was thinking the same as treerooster, because around here the birds do a lot of late summer molting and have funky looking fans sometime, but when you explained that the feathers just appear to be stunted, that's a stumper. The discolored feathers and the stunted ones may be due to a past sickness or dietary problem(?,?,?), you know like when people get white streaks in their hair. Just a wild guess there. No matter what, its a great start to your fall.
Ted

[ticklishtompro]

Congrats Scott. I always like those birds with "character" Anyone can shoot an ordinary looking bird!!

[WillowRidgeCalls]

Well this morning was a busy one. I went to the south end of the island because of a north wind, and the sun hits it first. As it was starting to get daylight, a hen sounds off from the north end, followed by a few other birds. Then I hear a deep raspy yelp, coming from the southwest side of the island which put that Tom about a 100 yards from me. I was just going to give those hens an answer when that Tom sounded off, so I switched calls and gave him a raspy yelp, and two answered. I figured it was the two Toms that was with the bird I shot last week. Both birds flew down into the grass at the end of the island and started working my way. The hens were really talking it up and then flew down towards the middle of the island, I heard five birds fly down. I broke a couple sticks and did a fly down with my hat and leg. The two Toms rounded the corner of the island and kept coming, I could see them through the brush. At about 50 yards they stopped and stood looking, then something spooked them and they came running past me and flew across the river into a picked cornfield, no clean shot as they went by. The hens were getting closer, so I swithed calls to the soft touch and started kee keeing to them, at the first kee kee the boss hen exploded and was talking up a storm, then the others joined in. As they worked toward me I could see five big birds all the same size. They kept coming and was soon 25 yards away looking for that poult, so I had some fun with them, talking back an forth with soft talk and feeding talk. They hung around about 40 minutes, before they headed off after the two Toms in the cornfield. There they all fed and the hens went up over the hill and the two Toms headed back towards me and into the brush. I had to leave by 9:00, so I couldn't stay and work them any longer. What surprized me was no poults with any of the hens, that smaller Tom was the smallest bird in the bunch?