We were just a couple of blocks from downtown on our Thanksgiving Day walk to Skinner Butte, when I spotted this wild turkey on the curb strip. Real turkeys, as opposed to automotive turkeys, are a bit outside of our mission, but I just had to share this ironic find. Well, there are a lot of vegetarians in Eugene…
Just to get a bit more perspective, here’s where I found it, just across the tracks for downtown proper. The food it was eating looked like it had been put there by someone. Feeding the turkey on Thanksgiving; Eugenians do like to do things a bit differently.
I’m supprised you could get as close as you did to that bird. There were wild turkeys in the area outside of the Twin Cities where I grew up, and those birds were aggressive and mean. We did not bother the turkeys lol.
“Wild” wild turkeys can be very aggressive, I’ve has some attack my car, but they can also be very docile if raised by humans. Wild turkey chicks are available at most farm supply places. My friends have some “wild” turkeys, and their 4 year daughter drags them around by the neck like a Labrador Retriever.
Being Eugene, I would assume this belongs to some younger urban farmer types…
There are a number of flocks of these around town. They don’t belong to an urban farmer. They’re wild, but harmless unless provoked. Well, they’re not harmless to folks’ gardens.
Are Turkeys native to that part of Oregon because I have yet to see a Turkey in the Portland Metro Area. In Mendocino County, California I heard the Turkeys were not native to the Fort Bragg area, but worked their way over there due to logging. Growing up in Tompkins County you really did not hear about wildlife such as Turkeys, Bears, Coyotes, etc. until the mid-2000 since before that they were making a comeback from being wiped out.
My mama tried cooking a roadkill Turkey, but she cooked it like a Thanksgiving Turkey so we could not eat it due to the tough meat so next time stewing is what we will do. My bus driver hit a Turkey with the Freightliner FS-65 she was driving because the bird failed to gain enough altitude over New York 34/96 so she pulled over before a cellphone dead zone and gave her husband a call so he could come and get it. An ex. neighbor of mine tried killing a Turkey with a circa 1997 Dodge Caravan, but it got away. They also tried shooting a Turkey from their bathroom window, but the Turkey’s feathers protected it from the Buckshot.
I’d never seen a wild turkey until I went to Tennessee in 1995. Since then they’ve been reintroduced to Maine and they’re doing well and I see them quite often.
Just to bring this entry back closer to the general CC theme I’ll share the following anecdote:
Back in the mid 90’s my daily commute took me over a 2-3 mile divided 4 lane stretch of Route 17A outside Tuxedo, NY. This stretch was preceded by a winding two lane over a steep mountain through what’s known as Sterling Forest between Tuxedo and Greenwood Lake. When coming out of the twisties onto the open straightaway it was difficult not to succumb to the urge to pick up significant speed, and of course in the early morning hours I often did just that.
One crisp autumn morning I was tooling along at about 70ish MPH when I came upon a group (flock? I should look up the term for a bunch of turkeys, I suppose) of wild turkeys on the shoulder. Something, maybe me, spooked the birds and they took sudden clumsy low-altitude flight across the road. (Yes, turkeys can fly on a very limited basis, but rather badly, it would seem.). Well, one of the slower gobblers just barely made it over the hood and across the windshield of the ’89 Jetta I was driving at the time. Picture yesterday’s Butterball coming right at your head at 70MPH. I don’t know if the turkey was adversely affected by the experience, but I very nealry soiled myself, and just as nearly ended up in a ditch as I ducked. Not a driving experience I expect to ever forget.
I hope you all enjoyed your meals yesterday !
As an aside, remember Police Squad ? The key categories at the locksmith were:
House keys, car keys, Florida Keys, Francis Scott Keys, Honkeys, Turkeys and Pot Roast.
“Who are you? And how did you get in here?”
“I’m a locksmith… and I’m a locksmith”
I’ll see that and raise…the perfect joke, delivered by the master.
https://youtu.be/IIWlzsGfBtg
One brave turkey sticking it’s neck out on Thanksgiving!
Wild turkeys are all over western Oregon. When I lived in the country by Coos Bay; we had a flock of them hang around our property for a couple years; it started as a dozen or so and grew to 25-30. They weren’t scared of humans and would chase our large male cats off; though my not too smart tabby jumped on the back of one big tom turkey, and got the surprise of his life when the turkey exploded into a ball of angry, flapping feathers shook him off and turned and chased him out of the yard; you don’t mess with a dad turkey. One thing tho; they do “fly like a turkey”. One day I was in my garage and heard a loud flapping of wings and then a loud “boom”; went out to look and there laid a dead turkey; who had come out of the trees and had tried to gain altitude, and had failed to clear our back shed! We didn’t try to eat it; as from past experience, wild birds have a gamey taste; and when hit by a car or other collision; the meat will be bruised and full of blood; makes it tough.
Western Oregon once had great numbers of ringneck pheasants, I remember going with my dad and his friend on hunts during the ’50s. Due to the changing of agricultural crops they are no longer present. Although I have never seen a wild turkey in Oregon, I have also not seen a pheasant in 30-40 years. Where are the turkey’s located? Kind of like when my dad and I went rabbit hunting in eastern Oregon in the late 50’s with one of my dads WWII Marine Corp buddies that he had been with overseas in the Pacific that had a ranch near La Grande. I was told there were vast numbers of rabbits in eastern Oregon but it seemed like a few years before there was a massive die off of them. Did not see one rabbit but when we came back we stopped to see another friend who lived next to what is now Russellville Commons Apartments in Portland and in his garden what did we see, a rabbit munching on his vegetables. Such an ironic situation. Sorry to go off on a tangent it just is this post for some reason triggered old memories.
Wild turkeys are located predominantly in southwestern Oregon; there are two kinds that were introduced in the ’60s; the Merriam and the Rio Grande; with the latter type taking roost better. They are like the deer; living in or close to people; seeming to know that they are safe there.
Thank you for your reply.
Benjamin Franklin petitioned for the turkey to be the national bird. Thank heavens the eagle was chosen. I wonder what old Ben was thinking or maybe he was getting a bit senile. We will probably never know.
taken today
There was a rafter (yes, I had to look that up) of “wild” turkeys here in Long Island when I was a kid… bizarre at the time, unimaginable now. They walked the streets, held up traffic and squatted in backyards. No one knows if they died off due to natural causes or became a hobo Thanksgiving dinner:
My turkeys do not roost here (thank goodness), but some of the neighbors complain of the mess they leave. There are quite a few around.
I don’t know the situation in Oregon, but wild turkeys are not native to California. I understand that the Department of Fish and Game allowed several hunting clubs to introduce them, and they’ve spread from there. I saw my first flock about 20 years ago while mountain biking on the local water district lands. Now turkeys can be seen many places where there’s open space next to development. They don’t seem afraid of humans; I used to house-sit for a friend and would find a flock of turkeys roosting in the huge oak by the front entry when I came out in the morning to get the paper. Wild turkeys in California seem to be following the stages that any introduced species does:
1. Rarity
2. Delightful Curiosity
3. Boringly Commonplace
4. Nuisance
5. Menace
California’s wild turkey population seems to be at stage four; they eat vegetable gardens and leave droppings everywhere they wander. I’m not sure what stage five would look like. Perhaps the late Alfred Hitchcock would have had some idea.
In Rochester, MN, the Ravens (ok crows) got to the point of 5. Sidewalks in the downtown area were covered with droppings. This was a problem in the winter. I don’t know if they found a way to discourage them or not.
If you see a gather of turkeys wandering around, it’s pretty easy to see why they’re not afraid of individual humans. Unless you have a shotgun or a large dog, you really wouldn’t want to argue with the turkeys.
The last 10 years of Mom’s life were spent living in a Senior Center complex on a hill in Framingham , Ma. , she had a ground level apartment that faced into a closed on three sides courtyard and she like most of the other little old ladies , always made sure there was a large pile of bird seed on her unused patio ~ those damn birds were the biggest I have ever seen , at sun set they’d clumsily fly up into the trees to roost , always taking several flights before settling above the lowest branches .
-Nate