Posted on 11/20/2008 4:18:30 PM PST by posterchild
In honor of Thanksgiving – and the constant stream of complaints wildlife officials get about the wild version of our holiday meal – this little item will be all about how to avoid the big birds from pecking at your heels this holiday season.
The good news is that wild turkeys have made a stunning comeback after being wiped out in the state by the mid-1800s from hunting and loss of habitat. Today, there are about 20,000-25,000 birds in Massachusetts. The bad news is that the wild turkeys have moved into Brookline, Newton and other suburbs where they are gaining an infamous reputation for terrorizing residents.
“No one ever guessed turkeys would become comfortable in urban and suburban areas…biologists thought these are very wary birds, there is no way they would get used to people, said Marion Larson, a biologist at MassWildlife. “But they found food in those places and they stayed.”
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
This article is ridiculously funny...(did I say silly?).
Yep
Some of the comments on the site are quite good also.
What is the line drawn on a piece of paper trick?
I think we have a few here in rural areas. A few would be welcome in my yard, but maybe I’d get more than I bargained for. I’d love to watch and photograph some. We are not Massachusetts, and there would be so much squawking, that they would do something to get rid of them like they do our deer.
LOL, dang, and we even grabbed the same picture.
You don't win a damned thing, but you guessed correctly. 
A Massachusetts turkey on its way to Court for a license.
Do whatever it takes to make 'em look like this!
Then, before the PITA, er...PETA crowd finds out, you must eat the evidence.
My bet is that some evening I could grab one, kill it, get it to the basement, plucked and cleaned in less than 15 minutes. The next day - turkey and all the trimmings! I have plucked a few gobblers and the only feathers that gave me trouble were the flight feathers in the wings. For this one I would simply lop the wings off. Stuff all the evidence in a black plastic bag and deposit it in a dumpster.
I spent a weekend a while ago in my state’s bow hunting class. If I still lived in MA I could get by with just a pair of gloves and an axe.
“The real danger facing us, or a good source of protein?”
Well, I can tell you the flock of wild turkeys that visit me will be ‘protein’ if I get hungry.
We really enjoy them, but they have miles of natural habitat to keep them company. I did enjoy watching them chase the cat.
I see wild turkeys from time to time along the old rail trail (actually the old trolley line between Princeton and Trenton). Never been attacked, and besides if you charge them, they usually fly away. Yes, wild turkeys CAN fly.
80 proof? Wimps, step up to 101!
It seems like I've heard you can hypnotize them or something with a line on a piece of paper, but maybe that's some other trick.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.