Walking down logging road yesterday morning about 9:15 after a damp predawn morning sit.
Rain had let up at first light. No turkeys had called, but I had seen a hen walk across the road from a creek bed to ascend a ridge 2 hours earlier. So, I switched to mid morning tactics, looking for a place to ascend the ridge and start calling.
I round the bend in the road, at the end of my new line of sight there is a bunch of fallen timber between the edge of the road and the slope. I see a turkey gliding downhill from the forested ridge, over the road, into the creek bottom. Just right place, right time. A couple minutes later, I hear some soft yelping from the slope opposite the creek.
Question is this: Was this turkey flying down from the roost 2 hours late? Or do turkeys in ridges fly down to a spot still on the slope, walk a ways downhill, and then possibly fly once they see an opening?
I'm just confused that turkey patterns can involve one hen walking uphill at first light, and another several hundred yards further down the ridge flying the opposite direction 2 hours later. Birds are strange.
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They would rather walk than fly. They will help themselves over obstacles with there wings. Turkey may have been spooked and flew. They finish flying with gliding.
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Live right near the Mississippi here in WI and it is sharp ridges and bluffs and it's nothing to see birds drop off a ridge to fly down to a valley "bottom". I wish I had a picture, always looks like a "hang-glider", they aren't really even flying just a glide, legs are hanging down and wings a cupped as they do this.
MK M GOBL
yes like MK M GOBL said they will fly to get somewhere. I live on a rural hillside and have turkeys woods all around my house. I have a clear view of the valley and I see turkeys fly across and downn into the valley several times a year
Yep. They do.
The VAST majority of a turkey's "flight mileage" is fly-up, fly-down and escaping danger. But as recently as last weekend, I watched a hen glide across one of our valleys late morning.........headed straight into a group of gobbling birds. She was yelping as she flew.
Hen's and gobblers both fly , it's not uncommon at all ... it's just another way for them to get around ...
In the mountains here they will fly from one ridge to another. I it's always fun to bail off a ridge and climb 6-700 vertical feet just to have that $#%!*& gobble back at you from the ridge you just came from.
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Quote from: Happy on April 26, 2020, 02:49:19 PM
In the mountains here they will fly from one ridge to another. I it's always fun to bail off a ridge and climb 6-700 vertical feet just to have that $#%!*& gobble back at you from the ridge you just came from.
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I'm glad you weighed in here, Happy. Undoubtedly this will happen to me in East Tennessee at some point, and I'd have thought I went crazy or horribly misheard the direction of the gobble.
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Watched a group take off from an open field. I had spooked them I think. Looked like B-17s taking off on a mission!
After 30 years of hunting and observing turkeys I am of the absolute opinion turkeys only ever fly when walking wont get er done and they MUST fly. Never once seen a turkey walking along undisturbed simply brake into flight. Spooked countless numbers of turkeys over the years, especially ones in fields and don't ever recall one choosing to fly rather than run away from what they perceived as danger.
Seen them fly at the shot or once I dropped one and the others were still hanging around and I got up from my hide, especially Toms that were busy beating the crap out of their now deceased former friend and so intent were they on beating their buddy when he was down they didn't notice me until I was a few yards away.
But under normal conditions they will always walk VS fly.
Quote from: MK M GOBL on April 26, 2020, 02:56:46 AM
Live right near the Mississippi here in WI and it is sharp ridges and bluffs and it's nothing to see birds drop off a ridge to fly down to a valley "bottom". I wish I had a picture, always looks like a "hang-glider", they aren't really even flying just a glide, legs are hanging down and wings a cupped as they do this.
MK M GOBL
x2 I see it on a regular basis. Its neat..
I saw one take a final flight across a river this year.
Also had 6 jakes fly down one morning about 2 hours after normal flydown. Thugs were just hangin on the limb I reckon.
Had a hen fly up over my head once and raise a crazy ruckus into a creek bottom - middle of the day.
Had a gobbler that wanted to cross a little barb wire fence. So he flew up on a limb 30 feet in the air and sat there and gobbled 20 times before he flew down. He did not come to me calling though. I think he could see the whole area and knew there was no hen there.
Quote from: Happy on April 26, 2020, 02:49:19 PM
In the mountains here they will fly from one ridge to another. I it's always fun to bail off a ridge and climb 6-700 vertical feet just to have that $#%!*& gobble back at you from the ridge you just came from.
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mannnnnnnnn..... the worst
In my experience turkeys only fly when there's a very good reason to. They'll fly to roost and they'll fly to escape danger. I once had a monster tom fly across a meadow to add the hen he thought I was to his harem. His harem came with him and it was quite a sight to see them all homing in on me. But that's not typical, they usually sneak up on you.
I have a farm that is on a knife-edge ridge with little finger-ridges coming off. Flat ground is at a premium. Faced with that situation, the turkeys do a lot more flying, because all they have to do is run and flap a bit, and they're airborne. I routinely bust them out in the field when I come 'round the side of the house doing chores and surprise them. I'd say 50% of the encounters end up with them taking off and flying off into the bottoms.
I have had them fly over the road before, one I did not see where it landed the other landed on a telephone pole. Had them fly when I have gotten to close to them as well. They can fly 30 MPH and run 55 MPH
That reminds me: I got my farm about 20 years ago. The first year I was driving the AA in Kentucky on a regular basis, there was a cut through one of the hills that was littered with turkey carcasses. It seemed every time I went out, there was a new one. Then, I found out why. There was a flock of turkeys that were launching themselves off the cut and trying to make it over the road, and it wasn't working out. As I approached the cut one day, I saw 5 of them go for it. 4 made it to the other side, but one hit the face of the far side and landed in the culvert beside the road. On another trip, I saw one unfortunate bird go into the windshield of the 18-wheeler up ahead of me. There was a this huge cloud of feathers and the truck slowed down and pulled off.
After that, I don't remember seeing any more dead birds. I figure that was the last of the flock.
Quote from: Sir-diealot on December 29, 2020, 01:32:25 PM
They can fly 30 MPH and run 55 MPH
Interesting statistic. Not sure where you saw that,...assuming it is a reliable source,...but I would have guessed just the opposite. It would be hard for me to imagine that a turkey can run 55 miles and hour, and I would think they could easily fly more than 30 miles an hour. In conclusion, I find that information pretty hard to believe,...but if it is, so be it. ;D
Quote from: GobbleNut on January 01, 2021, 08:37:11 AM
Quote from: Sir-diealot on December 29, 2020, 01:32:25 PM
They can fly 30 MPH and run 55 MPH
Interesting statistic. Not sure where you saw that,...assuming it is a reliable source,...but I would have guessed just the opposite. It would be hard for me to imagine that a turkey can run 55 miles and hour, and I would think they could easily fly more than 30 miles an hour. In conclusion, I find that information pretty hard to believe,...but if it is, so be it. ;D
Edit: This is also at the bottom but wanted to put it here as well.
"Oops, there goes my numbers dyslexia (dyscalculia) I reversed them. Sorry about that, did not even realize it until after I had hit enter and started to read it, that is why I do all my bills with a calculator."
Got it from Mr. Lovett Williams book Book of the Wild Turkey Now that said I do have number dyslexia so I could have that in reverse. Went and looking it up real quick and I do have it in proper order though this article does not mention how fast they can run.
1. Turkeys Can Fly Wild turkeys feed on the ground, which might explain the myth of their flightlessness. They can in fact soar for short bursts at up to 55 mph. But their tendency to stay on or near the ground contributed to successful hunting that brought the wild population of turkeys down to about 30,000 in the 1930s. There are now 7 million of them. https://www.livescience.com/7630-5-surprising-turkey-facts.html
Here you go, 30 MPH
6.How fast can wild turkeys run when they are scared?
Wild turkeys are fast fliers (up to 55 mph for short distances) and capable runners (15-30 mph). They can take full flight from a sitting position, but seldom fly more than a few hundred feet due to their short wings and heavy body weight. When agitated, they are more likely to run.
https://blog.outdoorherbivore.com/random/interesting-facts-about-turkeys/
Oops, there goes my numbers dyslexia (dyscalculia) I reversed them. Sorry about that, did not even realize it until after I had hit enter and started to read it, that is why I do all my bills with a calculator.
;D :laugh: No problem,...I was pretty sure they couldn't run that fast,...mainly cuz back in "the day" I could run one down once in a while and I'm pretty sure I never got above 30 mph! ;D :angel9:
Quote from: GobbleNut on January 01, 2021, 07:13:13 PM
;D :laugh: No problem,...I was pretty sure they couldn't run that fast,...mainly cuz back in "the day" I could run one down once in a while and I'm pretty sure I never got above 30 mph! ;D :angel9:
I get numbers messed up real bad, went to see my friend Jerry graduate from bootcamp in San Antonio Lakland AFB and my uncle I had not seen in years lived in Austin so he drove over to see me while I was there. Well I gave him directions and told him I was at Motel 8 on rout 275 in room 14 and I was on rout 14 in room 275 on rout 8 so I have a history of problem. By the way those are just numbers I made up but the rest of the story is true, I can't remember the proper numbers.
Was driving down the expressway south of home several miles early fall. Bit of a hill on both sides where they dug it out for the highway construction. Flock of turkeys were flying one side to the other in front of me.