I'm sure like many this spring, we are dealing with unusually high flooding in my area of Mississippi. The land I hunt is along a river and naturally there are a lot of turkeys that hang out in the river bottoms. It has flooded twice this year and right now the water is as high as I've ever seen it.
My question is, how long does it typically take birds to move back into an area they have been pushed out of because of high water.
I'd say not long. However, I recall Tom Kelly talking about how they have the ability to stay in the trees for weeks eating buds if they want to, even with dry land close by. So, they may even still be there. You should read his book The Season. Believe he said 1995 was the first in 55 years he hunted out of state for opening day. Because of floods.
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I dont know where you are in MS, but around here the birds really didnt move much. There are birds here that are still roosting over the flood waters and for the life of me I dont know where they can hit dry ground in the mornings. I sure do like to hear one gobbling over water in the mornings! If yours had to move I would suspect they will be back as soon as they can find a high spot that is out of the water. I have seen them later in the spring flying from tree to tree over a flood eating buds out of trees. They are pretty adaptive to whatever they find on a given day.
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Read the book east of the slash. John eddleman and his friends hunted up around tunica I believe. Lots of flooding. They would boat in and hunt some high spots in the flooded timber. He talked about how the birds sat in trees above the flooded timber for long periods of time. Very interesting read.
Hunting by the big black near Bentonia. It's the highest I've ever seen it.
Quote from: Gobbler2577 on February 28, 2019, 08:12:25 PM
I dont know where you are in MS, but around here the birds really didnt move much. There are birds here that are still roosting over the flood waters and for the life of me I dont know where they can hit dry ground in the mornings. I sure do like to hear one gobbling over water in the mornings! If yours had to move I would suspect they will be back as soon as they can find a high spot that is out of the water. I have seen them later in the spring flying from tree to tree over a flood eating buds out of trees. They are pretty adaptive to whatever they find on a given day.
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I hunt mostly Pine uplands now but for years I hunted river bottom turkeys. I've found that river bottom turkeys prefer that habitat and even though higher ground wasn't much of a walk away they tended to hang right on the edge of the backwater as it came up and then followed it as it drained back down. I wouldn't think they'd go for or stay gone long if it turns the bottom into a lake they will sometimes stay in the trees eating buds and such until the water goes down
Quote from: MShillhunter on February 28, 2019, 10:15:48 PM
Hunting by the big black near Bentonia. It's the highest I've ever seen it.
Quote from: Gobbler2577 on February 28, 2019, 08:12:25 PM
I dont know where you are in MS, but around here the birds really didnt move much. There are birds here that are still roosting over the flood waters and for the life of me I dont know where they can hit dry ground in the mornings. I sure do like to hear one gobbling over water in the mornings! If yours had to move I would suspect they will be back as soon as they can find a high spot that is out of the water. I have seen them later in the spring flying from tree to tree over a flood eating buds out of trees. They are pretty adaptive to whatever they find on a given day.
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You'll be fine. I live within a few miles of the head of the big black and you're right, it has been way up. But so much of that water has gone down very fast. We had around 10 inches of rain here and there has been water everywhere. In most places the birds acted like they didnt even notice. Your water likely will be gone in several days and birds right where they are supposed to be.
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Quote from: Gobbler2577 on February 28, 2019, 10:36:30 PM
Quote from: MShillhunter on February 28, 2019, 10:15:48 PM
Hunting by the big black near Bentonia. It's the highest I've ever seen it.
Quote from: Gobbler2577 on February 28, 2019, 08:12:25 PM
I dont know where you are in MS, but around here the birds really didnt move much. There are birds here that are still roosting over the flood waters and for the life of me I dont know where they can hit dry ground in the mornings. I sure do like to hear one gobbling over water in the mornings! If yours had to move I would suspect they will be back as soon as they can find a high spot that is out of the water. I have seen them later in the spring flying from tree to tree over a flood eating buds out of trees. They are pretty adaptive to whatever they find on a given day.
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You'll be fine. I live within a few miles of the head of the big black and you're right, it has been way up. But so much of that water has gone down very fast. We had around 10 inches of rain here and there has been water everywhere. In most places the birds acted like they didnt even notice. Your water likely will be gone in several days and birds right where they are supposed to be.
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I hope you're right! I did not know they would stay in the trees that long. I hope it goes down soon
I hunt on big black in hinds county, the last decent year we had was 2012. Since then it has flooded opening week for longer periods of time than I've ever seen the water stay that high. The turkey population is dismal at best on a piece of land that you used to hear 10 from all directions, anywhere on the 2000 acres you chose. It's not just our place that's been effected, a 4000 acre piece of property 2 miles or less to the south of us reports the same happening to them. I guess they just don't even try to nest in the swamp anymore and what few we have I hate to even hunt. I've since found another couple places to hunt and try to leave the birds in the swamp alone until late in the season if I even hunt the couple we have. With the Mississippi at 50' at Vicksburg there's nowhere for the water to go.
When the river comes up quickly overnight, the turkeys are often puzzled so that they stay in the tree although a flight of a quarter mile would lead them to higher ground. In some locations they have no known high ground and they starve on the limb once the budding season ends.