ORANGE AND RED CLIFFS surround tall cottonwood trees along the banks of a quiet, gurgling river on the canyon floor. After a good rain, colorful wild flowers explode from prickly cactus pads. It is pure, untamed western landscape, and from the edge of the canyon I feel like a spectator sitting on the top row of a huge stadium watching the main event. It's a beautiful place to hunt spring longbeards.

And a tough one. Turkey numbers are modest. While scouting and glassing before the season last spring, I estimated that 30 birds lived in the 1 1/2-mile stretch of river I had permission to hunt. Also, washed-out roads mean foot access only. That's good because it limits hunting pressure. But it also makes for some pretty physical hunting -- especially for turkeys.

As is the case in most western states, the prairie surrounding this canyon is open and flat. Thus, the narrow riparian zone along the flowing river channel provides a prime habitat strip, a virtual turkey highway. The strip has lush spring growth, tender grass, and lots of bugs. Hungry turkeys, especially newborn poults, thrive on bugs, and bugs flourish in wet areas. Find the water, find the bugs, find the turkeys.

Turkey populations can be healthy in such remote western river bottoms, but concentrations of birds might be miles apart. Nomadic turkeys are sometimes here today and gone tomorrow. Meandering turkeys can cover lots of ground up and down a river in one day.

I used to hunt this place the way I would hunt turkeys in normal areas: Up at 4:30 a.m., find a talkative tom coming off the roost at first light, set up blind and decoys, try to call him close. If nothing happened early, I'd wander up and down the river all day, calling and listening for gobblers.

It was exhaustive work. In northern Texas, the wind blows -- always -- so locating gobblers by sound is tough. And in the thick vegetation along the river, I often failed to see birds at eye level. Several times, while rounding a river bend, I bumped birds, creating panic and making the already wary birds even more wary. And because the small flocks are scattered along miles of river bottom, I wasted lots of time prowling pockets holding no birds.

Thus, over time, I have developed a better plan for hunting gobblers in these semi-open areas with moderate numbers of turkeys. It's like mule deer hunting, but with a twist, and it definitely works for turkeys. I call it spot, stalk, and call.

In lush western river bottoms like this, you first must find a vantage point and glass with high-powered optics from long range. Strutting gobblers are easy to spot against the brilliant green vegetation. With turkeys in view, you can execute a stalk and call your quarry within bow range. (Photo by Brandon Ray)

THE SPOT
It all starts with a good vantage point. In my canyon honey hole, that's a ledge high above the river from which I have an unobstructed view of a mile-plus stretch of canyon bottom, just like the hawks and buzzards that share the sky above me. In flatter terrain, a windmill tower, a haystack, or a slight rise in the prairie -- any point above the river channel and its thick vegetation -- might serve well as a vantage point for spotting.

Here's one beauty of this approach -- it works all day. In fact, I often sleep late, because getting out in the dark before sunrise offers no advantage. Early to midmorning and late afternoons seem most productive when turkeys are feeding and moving, but I've spotted turkeys at every hour of the day.

For spotting I consider good 8X or 10X binoculars and a tripod-mounted spotting scope to be the minimum. I use the binoculars to sweep the area first, and then I methodically dissect every bush and crevice with the scope.

A feeding, moving flock of turkeys creates lots of movement, and the bronze and copper-colored birds contrast sharply with green spring vegetation. Also, strutting gobblers inflate themselves to the size of beach balls, and black beach balls with cherry-red heads are pretty easy to identify. Spotting at distances up to a mile from my familiar perch, I find turkeys surprisingly easy to see.

Here's one last note on spotting: When you have located birds, mentally note landmarks near the turkeys such as boulders, dead trees, or specific unique bends in the river. You'll need these landmarks later.