So on our property we have a small hedge row of woods with a creek that's about 40-50 yards wide to the other side to the neighbors property. We have a 60 acre field across from this creek. Turkeys roost across the creek and it seems like the birds are tough to get across the creek to us in the field. Do they not like to come across the creek after they are on the ground?
Turkeys don't like obstacles pretty much of any kind. As breeding season gets into full swing anything is possible with them crossing the creek etc...
Pretty wide creek there. I have had them cross similar bodies of water. If you use decoys, and they see them, that should convince them to "flutter" across. But normally as mentioned above, they do not like obstacles. All depends on the day and the mood....good luck.....
Birds will often use a field and fly across a bordering creek at night. Lots of times they do actually. Sometimes they fly down both ways and than you have a chance but if they're constantly going the wrong way it might be tough. I'd find birds in a better location if that was the case
Do they have hens roosting with them? If they have hens with them and the hens fly across, there is a good chance the gobblers will follow, I have seen this happen in the spring several times.
You know they're there and they aren't moving, you've got nothing to loose. If you cackle the hell out of them sometimes you can get a whole flock to fly over to see what's going on. In November I saw about 30-40 birds fly acorss a swamp that separatres the forest I hunt from private woods and farm land.
WOW identical to my currant turkey grounds.
My question is, will they cross with any sort of current in the creek?
The short answer to every "turkey question" is that turkeys are gonna do what turkeys wanna do. :D
Having said that, us hunters can influence them a bit by trying "stuff" that might make them decide to do the thing that we want them to. You get their attention by making turkey noises and maybe showing them a "visual" that catches their attention and makes them want to come visit. With enough encouragement of that type, sometimes they will cross obstacles and barriers that we would think they wouldn't. ...And sometimes, they won't.
However, in situations like you describe, the best we can do is try...
Now, personally, I have succeeded on rare occasions in making them come visit in situations like yours. When I have, it most often has been accomplished by being rather aggressive in my calling and being both demanding and pleading for them to come. On other occasions, they have just pretty much ignored my attempts. ...Turkeys gonna do what turkeys wanna do... ;D :D
Quote from: Mikehunts2 on January 16, 2023, 08:33:07 AM
My question is, will they cross with any sort of current in the creek?
Yes ... by flying across the creek etc ....
I've seen a gobbler hang up in a field because of a shadow from a big lone pine tree. He would walk up to it and pace back and forth, but never would cross. And I've seen a gobbler go through a blowdown that he easily could have walked around or hopped over, that you wouldn't think a rabbit could get through. Same scenario five days in a row can result in five different reactions. Nothing with turkeys surprises me anymore. The only thing I'd suggest is be persistent. You may watch them go the other way for 10 hunts in a row. But don't miss the 11th day because of that. You have to be there when they decide to go to the other side. Sometimes you kill them on good attendance.
A turkey will fly the Hudson river one day and hang up behind a puddle the next
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Watched several birds fly up across the river this year. We actually were able to see them on the limb where they flew up (from our side). We were in position at zero dark thirty and sure enough they flew back across the 100 yard wide swift flowing river right back to our side. Of course, the jake put his feet on our side, head up, bead on the head where all I had to do was squeeze. Several more hens followed and the gobblers came last. They gobbled like crazy (those were the only two that flew across to a tree). They stayed up there until the hens and jake moved away and the flew down and followed them. We worked around them and were never able to call the whole flock back in although we stayed with them for 4 hours.
The moral to the story is if they are flying up from your side, your odds are decent. If they are flying up from the other side, your odds go way down. I would be there at fly up time and see where they come from.
If turkeys didn't do all the things people say they won't they'd get stuck on top of a hill and starve to death.
Unless I misread, your issue is they can planly see there's no turkey without having to come across.
It has all been said...
Sometimes they will cross a major freeway... Sometimes they will be stopped by a small tree branch.
It is an odd thing to observe sometimes, and I have no explanation for it when a bird hangs up on "nothing." Couple years back, I had a couple birds hang up on two fences posts with no fence. They strutted, gobbled, and paced on the other side of two posts with no fence...
Another time, I am watching these birds (in the air) coming towards me from across the canyon, thinking they were vultures... Granted, they had to lose altitude to get to me, but it was a long ways across.
When their own hens are on the nest, you have a better shot at pulling those toms over.
And... I have been surprised on properties, how much of the time, most of a good looking property does not hold birds... For various reasons, they have their preferences.
I was hunting a cattle pasture in North Carolina one Spring. I could see quite a distance. I sat in a ground blind on a hedgerow. Had a Dave Smith decoy spread out front. I heard a bird gobble way off to my sporadic calls. With binoculars I watched the bird approach from way out. This gobbler did everything I expected him not to do. He crossed through 3 different barbwire fence, came acrosd a creek and walked all the way up the fencerow.
Ive followed tracks down my logging roads and they just make a few wing flaps across the creek and continue on the other side.
As others have said never know quite what a turkey will do on any given day. I guess that's what keeps us hunting them.