Cliff diving turkeys ?

[Coyotes-R-Us]

 
Yesterday we were on the cold river in the boat.
At one of our stops, we saw a dozen turkeys fly up into some cottonwood trees. That in its self was cool we have few turkeys.
This time of year ALL the large trees also have a bald eagle or two sitting in them, as did the trees the turkeys perched in.
That was not as bizarre as what happened next. They took off one at a time flew across the 100-yard wide river to a shear dirt cliff maybe 200 feet high, AND landed. and ran off sidehill, everyone took their turn then ran as fast as they could on the side of this cliff about 100 feet up from the water. we were not underway when they did it, so we were not scaring them. There running so fast big chunks of bentonite were breaking off and rolling into the water.
We had to go investigate, we pull up alongside and paced them they ran a mile finally exhausted they just stopped and we slipped by. They were mostly toms and jakes, with a few hens. I think the reason they flew was the eagle threat but why to a cliff they certainly could fly to the top.
Can you people whit a lot of turkeys around care to explain this bazar event???

[HaMeR]

My guess is they felt comfortable there with the cliff behind them & able to see any incoming threats all around them.

[FinsnFur]

I bet it's warm too