Furthest distance you've seen bird fly across a river?

[turkeyfool]

I was in Maine this weekend. After fooling with some birds from 430am to about 7am, they went quiet and I decided to get in my kayak and head down the river to just listen and fish. Caught a pickerel on a whopper plopper drifting down, which was pretty neat. Anyway, I pull up onto this shoreline to check it out. As soon as I get out of the kayak, I hear a bird hammer (assuming it's on my side of the river). Get set up under this small diameter cedar with the branches hanging over me. I call once and get an immediate answer. At this point, I almost start to question which direction he was. I hear wings and convince myself this bird has to on my side of the river and that there is no way I just heard one fly across. Less than a minute later, I hear drumming and catch him strutting next to me at 5 yards. I got it done, but I could not believe he flew across the river. Actually, there was an island in the middle river 200 yards from me that I believe he flew from.

Have you ever seen anything like this happen? What's the furthest you've seen a bird pitch across a body of water to get to you?

[Tom007]

Wow, congrats. I never had one fly across water to get to me, but I did have one fly down one level on a ridge to come in. Like you, I ended up lucky and got him. Great story....

[redjones]

Had a Tom fly across a river out West that was probably 100-125 yrs wide,came into my decoys like a Goose.lol


      Greg

[btomlin]

I had one fly across a lake cove (75 yrds wide x 200 yrd deep) this Spring.  He strutted on 1 side about 5 mins after pitching down, walked down to the water and took the 75 yrd flight.  He lit about 6" beyond the water and puffed up and come right up the shore to the large oak that he heard his "gal" making promises........flydown to shot.  10mins.   Yes, I thought he was on my side until it was too late to get around the lake cove.

[Jstocks]

Had a Rio fly across a pond this year about 100 yards wide. He could have easily just walked around it.

Had a hen pick up and fly 200 yards across a cow pasture mid morning. Left the gobbler that was strutting there by here and flew to me. Landed about 50 yards away, and walked right past me. The gobbler strutted all the way to me and I killed him. He is still one of the longest set of spurs I've killed. I couldn't believe that hen flew the pasture to me.

[jpc1317]

I was duck hunting one morning on Wheeler Lake in North Alabama and a gobbler roosted across the bay from our decoys. At sunrise, I watched a bald eagle swoop at the gobbler and he went to full strut to scare the eagle off. Once the eagle left, I watched him pitch out and fly 1.78 miles across the river. After watching this, I'm convinced a bird may fly to you if he wants to bad enough, but in my experience, the hens are more willing to travel than gobblers.

[Tom007]

Wow, what an experience

[Greg Massey]

That's pretty neat of him flying across the river ... that's turkeys being turkeys ...

[Dtrkyman]

Not coming to the call, but I have seen birds sail off the bluffs in Missouri all the way into Illinois across the Mississippi river!

I would guess that is a half mile across where I was.

[Marc]

After season, I once watched a hen with chicks attempt to fly across a river over 100 yards long...  The hen easily made it, but most of the chicks did not.  I watched a striped bass pick off three of the chicks...  A couple managed to swim to the shore and join with mom...  A couple (that did not get eaten) got washed down stream in the current.

While quail hunting, I flushed some jakes and toms from a ridge, that flushed and flew over the same river (in a wider area with higher water)...  They used the altitude to fly out of sight over a river that was well over 200 yards wide.

[Tail Feathers]

 I tried to get across a river once but was not successful.  That sounds like a great hunt!

[GobbleNut]

I tried to get across a river once but was not successful. 

Sounds like that might have been an adventure in itself! 

No rivers to fly around here, but I have seen a gobbler fly about 400 yards across a canyon to come to a call on one occasion.     

[NCL]

I spend time on the Sacramento River, which is wide, and have seen turkeys fly back and forth across the river numerous times. A few years ago I was fishing and several turkeys flew across and landed a short distance from where I was standing. Never been successful at calling a gobbler across the river even though have tried on several occasions.

[whitelightning]

I watched a bird I missed fly about 1.5 miles in Hawaii this spring. I also saw a hen launch from a tree and she must have covered half a mile flying to a gobbler.

[rgref522]

about 30 yards across a smaller river

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