Wild turkey menace: Angry birds are pecking cars, deflating kiddie pools and harassing the elderly

[Dennis Donovan]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/12/24/wild-turkey-menace-angry-birds-are-pecking-cars-deflating-kiddie-pools-harassing-elderly/


Wild turkeys walk in a roadway in Toms River, N.J., in November. (Wayne Parry/AP)

By Laura Reiley

Dec. 24, 2019 at 7:00 a.m. EST

In the video, the male turkey — snood engorged, tail feathers spread extravagantly — struts briskly after the U.S. Postal Service vehicle, circling the boxy white truck and lunging as the mail carrier inserts envelopes in each box along the block. The viral video, with 7 million views and counting, is just one of the many examples of increasingly spirited human-turkey kerfuffles.

In Toms River, N.J. they have terrorized an over-55 community, attacking cars and pecking kiddie pools unto deflation. While flocks (a group of wild turkeys is actually called a rafter) have left their notable calling cards in communities in New Jersey, they have crashed through windshields in Florida, pecked their way into police stations in Massachusetts, and in Utah become such a nuisance that 500 were rounded up and relocated to the deep woods.

In the early 1900s wild turkeys were almost eradicated from the United States, their dwindling numbers driven by unrestricted harvesting for meat and feathers.

And now they are back — in some cases, it seems, with a vengeance.

</snip>

One turkey interviewed asked for the address of an "Arthur Carlson"...

[Dennis Donovan]

1. ABC News report:

Also, if you live in "Toms River" you gotta expect a turkey or two.

[pwb]

2. Good to see them back.

.

[DFW]

3. They are all over Cape Cod. One possible solution:

Post big signs near where turkeys are known to frequent saying, "We Celebrate Thanksgiving Here!"

I know of no community that ever had any trouble after doing that.

[Dennis Donovan]

12. ...only for turkeys that can read.

[DFW]

17. Ever been to a Republican gathering?

They are all over the place.

[DFW]

39. P.S.

That is in Massachusetts. Everybody can read there, even turkeys and Republicans, not to mention the frequent cases where both terms apply.

[whistler162]

4. Hitchcock had it right!

All hail thee Avian overlords.

[Polybius]

5. "Harassing the elderly"

I never knew turkey’s discriminate by age!

[a la izquierda]

7. The area has a lot of 55+ communities.

My mom lives there. I’ll have to ask her about this! 🤣

[GeorgeGist]

10. With kiddie pools...

apparently!

[tblue37]

38. For grandkids, maybe. nt

[Buns_of_Fire]

6. A turkey with an engorged snood strutting around... Sounds like tRump... nt

[localroger]

14. Can Trump even engorge his snood? /nt

[MineralMan]

24. Only after taking a blue pill.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

8. Turkeys been listening to Limbaugh again.

Just take away their ear buds........ ......

[spiderpig]

9. We have a walking path next to our house

that goes down to a city park. The turkeys march in military alignment back and forth, and can they ever poop! Other neighbors have reported seeing them at our major intersection staying in the crosswalk to get across the street.

We always kid each other that they go into hiding in November.

[samnsara]

11. I have a wild flock of 6 living in my driveway..i used to have only 4 females, I could never...

...figure out if they were a flock of chicks with mom or what. Anyway about a month ago I look out and now there are six turkeys! Two huge males just appeared at the same time and joined up with the ladies. Where did they come from and how did they know about the girls? I live in the forest in a canyon and there have been turkeys in the canyon for years and one place down from me has a huge flock living on their property. Mine also hang closely with a herd of deer...2 females and 3 older fawns. The males are gorgeous especially when all their tail feathers are spread and they are all puffed up trying to attract a lady.

I take a pail of grain out to them but now Im a bit worried they may fly at me? I never turn my back on the deer when I feed them.. maybe I need to be more leary of the turkeys.

[localroger]

15. Birds know the free food person. nt

[Kaleva]

18. I feed a rafter of 27. They spend their time up on the wooded hill back of my place.

When hungry, they come down to the end of the dead end street where I spread food out for them 2-3 times a day. If I wasn't feeding them, most would probably starve to death as they have great trouble finding food when the snow is deep.

[MineralMan]

23. We have a little group of females who show up at our feeding station in the front

yard sometimes. I'm surprised they don't make it a regular stop. I love watching the animals coming to eat at our house.

[Kaleva]

25. The turkeys I feed will sometimes disappear for a day or two when the temp is above freezing.

When the temp is below zero or if there's a blizzard, they stay close.

[Laffy Kat]

13. Gang violence. nt

[Dennis Donovan]

16. "It's like they were... ORGANIZED!"

[Laffy Kat]

20. ....

[underpants]

35. As God is my witness

You beat me to it.

[area51]

19. And then there's this weirdness of turkeys circling a dead cat.

[Laffy Kat]

21. So weird.

[msongs]

30. turkey - henge nt

[MineralMan]

22. A couple of years ago, a wild turkey tom decided that

the parking lot at my local ACE hardware was HIS territory. Customers would drive in and park, and Tom would run over to their cars and threaten them when they tried to leave their cars to enter the store. The staff in the store thought that was really amusing, which surprised me, because some of the people just left to go a few blocks to the Home Depot.

I'm not afraid of any Tom turkey, though. So, I pulled in and he ran over to block me from getting out of the car. I ignored old Tom and used the door to push him out of the way so I could get out. That appeared to enrage the big gobbler, who thought it would be a good idea to go for me after I was standing on the pavement

I wasn't having any of that, so I raised my arms so they were straight out from my shoulders, stamped my feet, and rushed poor old Tom. The turkey turned around and scampered away in the face of my challenge. I was a much bigger turkey and was clearly coming for him. He ran off and hid behind the Propane refilling station. But I followed him, and chased him around the parking lot, making loud noises and flapping my arms wildly as I went.

Poor Tom Turkey. When he was fled to the vacant lot next to the parking lot, I went into the store to get what I came for. The store staff was laughing loudly. I guess I put on quite a show for them. Anyhow, the next time I went to that store, one of the employees told me that the turkey had stopped bothering people in the parking lot, but was still hanging around.

The same trick, I found, works for geese, too. Just become a bigger, meaner bird and go after the challenger.

[Dennis Donovan]

26. Great idea! I wish that would be my first instinct in the same situation...

...unfortunately, mine would be running like hell and screaming "get this fucking bird off of me!!"

[MineralMan]

28. Just don't try it with an Ostrich or an Emu.

It won't work. They're meaner than you.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

31. Now we know how to handle the turkeys in the Senate

[MineralMan]

33. Might work. Who can say?

[yortsed snacilbuper]

37. How do you mark your territory?

[uponit7771]

40. +1, I wonder if the same can be done to Trump? Scare him away

[MineralMan]

41. I wish it were so.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

27. per AC: "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

29. These were cruising through my alley a couple weeks ago:

[MineralMan]

34. They seem to have discovered that residential areas

often have food around birdfeeders. No predators around, either, at least in places where people respect leash laws. Cats don't mess with turkeys, or even chickens most of the time.

[Igel]

36. Time for this non-profit to branch out.

https://www.urbanharvest.org/

[Initech]

32. All they need is a slingshot and some pigs!

[Hermit-The-Prog]

42. Re: Mr. Carlson ...

Wild turkeys are excellent flyers. It's not uncommon to startle them on my one lane road. In just seconds, they clear the tops of the trees growing right up to the edge of the road. It's an almost vertical launch and amazing to see such big birds gain altitude so fast.

Arthur Carlson just didn't know that domesticated, overfed, selectively bred, clipped turkeys destined for Thanksgiving dinners are a bit different from those in the wild.