Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Talkin' Turkey

Get me some dijon on whole wheat or a digital camera, but I honestly cannot believe the amount of wild turkeys taking over my hometown. We have a family of five living in our apartment complex and about ten full grown males were spotted in front of my office building.
"I can't get in" said a coworker calling me on his cell. "I swear there is a turkey in front of the door and he won't let me get past him." I know this man. He owns a motorcycle and has guns. At 7:59am he was at odds with a 3 foot high turkey. "Just shoot him and come on up" I said. This was met with disdain. I think one of them actually had a knife and cell phone.
My mother lives with me and I was trying to figure out a way we could keep one of the smaller females that wander our neighborhood. "Could we keep her in the bathtub mom?" I asked. "No honey, you're 37. Once you get a husband then you can have a turkey." she said.
I think I'll load 'em up in my car and take them to work with me. Maybe we could set up a meeting with the boys my coworker met this morning. Bay area rapid transit is also nearby; they could go to San Francisco. The new Barney's is there; some shopping, fine dining, a little wine, some symphony maybe. The turkeys I've known in the past have tried this formula. Maybe it will for work for these guys with better results.

Here is a fun little article along the same lines from '03. It beats election news.

Can a Wild Turkey Find Success and Happiness in Manhattan?
By THOMAS J. LUECK
Published: May 23, 2003
Much about this bird is a mystery.
For starters, why did it take flight over Manhattan? Where did it come from? Is it alone?
One thing is clear.
''It's definitely a wild turkey,'' said E. J. McAdams, executive director of New York City Audubon, which has documented sightings of the bird from the Upper West Side to Chelsea and Greenwich Village since February. ''And it's a talented turkey at that.''
Several other witnesses, lacking Mr. McAdams's ornithological insight, have been just as impressed.
''The thing scared me to death,'' said Art Lindenauer, a retired chemical engineer who encountered the turkey in April on the balcony of his 28th-floor apartment on West 70th Street. Mr. Lindenauer has photographs of the turkey at rest, walking along the balcony railing, and taking flight.
By all accounts, the wild turkey sightings apparently are a first in the center of Manhattan. Few species would seem less likely inhabitants of an urban core, considering the wild turkey's ungainly size, its native habitat in woods, mountains and swamps, and its diet of berries, nuts and insects.
But its arrival is not altogether surprising, given that birds and animals have been making their way into densely populated areas across the nation.
A coyote was found in Central Park in 1999, not far from where a pair of red-tailed hawks have nested on a luxury apartment building at Fifth Avenue and 74th Street. Bears, not yet spotted in Manhattan, have been spotted in the suburbs, feeding from garbage cans and lumbering across yards.
Wild turkeys, long a beguiling sight along back roads and stone walls in the country, have been moving steadily to the suburbs and the fringes of the boroughs.
Several have been spotted in recent years in Pelham Bay Park, in the Bronx Zoo, on Staten Island and in Inwood Hill Park at the northern tip of Manhattan.
The turkey that has been spotted this year in Manhattan is clearly a female: she is smaller and less colorful than a male.
''The population all around is so healthy, I would not be surprised to see one or two turkeys wander into Manhattan each year,'' said Greg Butcher, an ornithologist and director of citizen science for the National Audubon Society. ''Turkeys are going to want woods and fields, and New York City parks provide them,'' he said, ''but I would be surprised to see a self-sustaining population in Manhattan.''
Not everyone is convinced that a wild turkey could find its way into the center of Manhattan on its own.
''If it's real, I'd say it was assisted into the city by some person,'' said Stephanie Easter, director of dispatch for the city's Center for Animal Care and Control, which rescues injured animals and birds.
''We've never seen one in Manhattan,'' she said, ''and I don't think the average person in this city knows what a wild turkey looks like.''
John Rowden, the curator of animals at the Central Park Zoo, said that no one had yet reported a wild turkey in his park but that recent sightings in the Bronx and Inwood might explain how one or more was spotted near the Hudson River on the West Side.
''Turkeys are not great dispersers or fliers,'' he said, adding that they rarely range much over 12 miles. Even their limited flying abilities would allow turkeys to cross the narrow expanse of the Harlem River from the Bronx, find their way to the Hudson and migrate down its shoreline, he said.
That appears to fit the pattern. Mr. McAdams, of the city's Audubon Society chapter, said the first two sightings were in February and mid-April, when what seems to have been the same bird was spotted trotting in the West 60's between West End Avenue and the West Side Drive.
Then, on April 20, came Mr. Lindenauer's encounter on his 28th-floor balcony, in the Lincoln Towers apartment complex, just off West End Avenue. He said he spotted the turkey leaning against his living room window, as if she were taking a nap.
Mr. Lindenauer, who was at home with his wife, Jinx, a sculptor, said he tapped on the window to get the turkey's attention. The bird stood up reluctantly, he said, and walked along the railing, posing for photographs for 15 minutes or so before she took off.

2 Comments:

Blogger holly said...

it's me, the trusty commentor! ha ha ha!!! this turkey business has me in stitches, next to the giblets! what's going on, are the turkeys running from the fire???
we have armadillos here in ga. not so cute. esp. not when crushed by a car.
i'm going to ross "dress for less" tata! luv ye

10:02 AM  
Blogger holly said...

o what, JINX? someone named their child JINX?

5:13 PM  

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