Do turkeys fly when roost isn’t involved?

[AppalachianHollers]

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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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[fallhnt]

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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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[MK M GOBL]

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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

[eggshell]

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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

[Yoder409]

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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.

[Greg Massey]

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Hen's and gobblers both fly , it's not uncommon at all ... it's just another way for them to get around ...

[Happy]

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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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[AppalachianHollers]

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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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[Turkeytider]

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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!

[DMTJAGER]

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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. 

[1iagobblergetter]

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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

x2 I see it on a regular basis. Its neat..

[g8rvet]

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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. 

[Gobble!]

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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

[natman]

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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.

[shaman]

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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.