Most of the turkeys had disappeared from Brookline, MA so of course the do gooders (Audubon Society) had to get involved. The revitalization of the turkey population has been such a success that the turkeys have come to enjoy suburban living.

A wild turkey strolled along a sidewalk on Beacon Street in Brookline. The birds can grow to weigh roughly 20 pounds and stand 4 feet tall. (Globe Staff Photo / Mark Wilson)

BROOKLINE – On a recent afternoon, Kettly Jean-Felix parked her car on Beacon Street in Brookline, fed the parking meter, wheeled around to go to the optician and came face to face with a wild turkey.

The turkey eyed Jean-Felix. Jean-Felix eyed the turkey. It gobbled. She gasped. Then the turkey proceeded to follow the Dorchester woman over the Green Line train tracks, across the street, through traffic, and all the way down the block, pecking at her backside as she went.

“This is so scary,” Jean-Felix said, finally taking refuge inside Cambridge Eye Doctors in Brookline’s bustling Washington Square. “I cannot explain it.”

Notify the neighbors: The turkeys are spreading through suburbia. Wild turkeys, once eliminated in Massachusetts, are flourishing from Plymouth to Concord and – to the surprise of some wildlife officials – making forays into densely populated suburban and urban areas, including parts of Boston, Cambridge and, most recently, Brookline.

snip….Efforts to revitalize the state’s turkey population between 1911 and 1967 failed. Then, in 1972 and 1973, the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife released 37 turkeys in the Berkshires. These turkeys survived and bred. And between 1979 and 1996, wildlife officials trapped more than 500 turkeys in the Berkshires and released them elsewhere in the state.

Biologists were pleased; today’s turkey population in Massachusetts lingers around 20,000. But Marion Larson, an information and education biologist at MassWildlife, said officials had not counted on the turkey’s appetite for suburban – and even urban – living.

snip….The problem, according to some Brookline residents, is that the turkeys can be aggressive at times. Dr. Ruth Smith, an internist from New York City, was staying with a cousin in Brookline a couple of weeks ago when she was stalked by what she describes as a 3-foot-tall turkey.

“He came at me and, at first, I tried to shoo him away,” Smith recalled. “I figured I’d just go ‘Shoo!’ and he’d go. But he was very aggressive.”

If you didn’t know this turkeys aren’t exactly bright bulbs. Depending on the time of year, there are flocks of turkeys grazing along the roadside of my country road. More often than not when I’m driving along and encounter turkeys crossing the road the stupid birds stop crossing and run down the road in front of the vehicle. After a few honks of the horn they will finally drift off to the side of the road. Probably the left side of the road, you know cause they’re alot like Dhimmicrats. They strut along aimlessly displaying their plumage.

Reposted from 10/23/2007 – Turkey Gentrification

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