I’ve got one tract I hunt that gets very little pressure. But the birds absolutely will not gobble until the first crow sounds off. Problem is by that time it’s too light to move on them. Anybody else have this problem and have a theory why?

Mother Nature every morning same thing birds know what ups

I have noticed this before, would not hear a turkey until a few crows got cranked up

Use the terrain to get in front of where they are going. Not to mention if you strike one later in the day you should be able to get close and kill them.

Hmm. Can't speak for the crows...but gobbling that begins after it's too light to move in close has been pretty common in my experience

That’s just normal behavior. I can count on one hand the number of turkeys in AL that have gobbled before first light. Most don’t start until you can see very well. I used to hunt with a guy who’d burn the roads up owl hooting before first light and he hardly ever heard a bird in the dark. Now out west, they’ll hit the ground earlier than our birds start gobbling.

I've got a place that's the same way. 1st crow of the morning, you better have your ears peeled. This property also has a terrible predator population so I'm guessing that may be a contributing factor.

One of my places is just like that with the first crow but I hunt other places where they gobble a little sooner

I would get a crow call

I agree. If they gobble to that pitch, hit your crow call in the dark as opposed to a hoot owl call, but I would Bet you $100 if they responding to crow call they will shock gobble to a hoot owl call especially if roll your call at the end with a cackle

I have three crow calls, two are fairly soft but one is sharp and loud, it gets the shock gobble.

I guess it's not always just crows:
Yesterday at sunrise, walking down a ridge, I heard a pair of geese flying along a creek honking.
A roosted bird down in the holler gobbled back at them twice, but I never heard another word from him.

I always carry a goose call in my vest just because of that. Sometimes it's the only thing that will pull a gobble out of one.

I still haven't heard a crow this morning.

👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻 Faulk’s makes a good’un - have had mine a very long time