Citizen complaint of the day: Urgent turkey help needed

Living in Pittsfield MA not far from a hunting area, she saw a turkey drop out of the sky at the top of her property. It was hit with buckshot and made it at least a mile before its demise. Mom climbed up the hill and dragged the dead bird into the garage.

Several hours later the younger brother comes home, unaware of what mom did, sees the bird dead in the garage and believes that someone left him a warning message. He was a gambler and likely had enemies. Good times.

Cleaned and feathered, don't ask me how, I got to try some. It wasn't very good. Tough and stringy.

Your family sounds ... unusual.

By jmeltzer
Tue, 08/20/2019 - 10:39am

Do they make their own whiskey, too?

Ever spent time in rural parts of New England?

By anon
Tue, 08/20/2019 - 11:11am

In northern Maine people often have large freezers for freshly killed meat from deer, even moose.Deer, moose roadkill are often given to homeless shelters.

Your 'civilized' lifestyle is dependent on others doing much of the dirty work you find appalling.

Hard cider, we have crab

By anon
Tue, 08/20/2019 - 12:05pm

Hard cider, we have crab apples. What's unusual?

Lots of people in Western MA

By anon
Tue, 08/20/2019 - 2:02pm

Lots of people in Western MA hunt. Some even do it out of their own back yard. MA doesn't end at 495 much as most of the Boston population might think, and there are quite a few nice places over there.

Well

By BostonDog
Tue, 08/20/2019 - 9:10pm

Nothing unusual about hunting but is it common to have gambling problems in Western Mass to the point of seeing a dead turkey in the trash and think someone is sending you a message?

495?

By anon
Wed, 08/21/2019 - 9:10am

My line between city and country has always been 128.

City/Country Border

By DapperO
Wed, 08/21/2019 - 11:43am

Charles River to Norumbega to the North.
Neponset River to Mattapan Square to the South.
To the West the line is more fluid, roughly Cummins Highway to Roslindale, parts of Brookline with Green Line service, Alumni Stadium, Comm Ave to Center Street to the Pike, to Norumbega.

Seriously... they're turkeys!

By anon
Tue, 08/20/2019 - 9:55am

Seriously... they're turkeys! They're everywhere in our state. They'll just move on.

After they've devoured everything

By jmeltzer
Tue, 08/20/2019 - 10:41am

they'll move on to the next state. And they can't be stopped. Panic now.

Enjoy and respect nature.

By anon
Tue, 08/20/2019 - 8:58am

Enjoy and respect nature. They're eating all the wiggly slimy worms and fleas in your overgrown-ass yard!!!

Rejoice

By Hopeisntenough
Tue, 08/20/2019 - 9:48am

Rejoice. They eat ticks.

tick eaters

By Lisfnord
Tue, 08/20/2019 - 1:07pm

I didn't know that turkeys eat ticks! That's great.

Opossums, another animal that people have an unnatural fear of, also eat ticks. Lots and lots of ticks. So we should rejoice for them too!

Guinea fowl love eatin' them

By Ginn Knee
Tue, 08/20/2019 - 6:05pm

Guinea fowl love eatin' them ticks, too.
But I bet they are easier prey than the turkeys.

Opossums

By Stevil
Tue, 08/20/2019 - 11:12pm

One of God's mistakes. Along with the wildebeast.

Hell, we can't even agree on how to spell it.

Yeah, it's usually spelled

By perruptor
Wed, 08/21/2019 - 7:04am

wildebeest.

Ah yes

By Stevil
Wed, 08/21/2019 - 8:41am

You are correct.

And apparently also referred to as a gnu where I believe the g is not silent

No gnus

By Kaz
Wed, 08/21/2019 - 2:38pm

...is good gnus.

[img]https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_BTCU_bcHN0/hqdefault.jpg[/...

Get a coyote.

By jmeltzer
Tue, 08/20/2019 - 10:36am

That is, if a coyote can take down a turkey. Can it?

Doubtful

By ECG (nli)
Tue, 08/20/2019 - 10:52am

Turkeys are larger and heavier than roadrunners and I've never seen a coyote succeed with one of those.

Slower, though.

By jmeltzer
Tue, 08/20/2019 - 5:55pm

There's a reason why we don't have roadrunners for Thanksgiving dinner.

The reason

By Kaz
Tue, 08/20/2019 - 8:46pm

Roadrunners are the state song bird.

"Beep Beep"

By perruptor
Wed, 08/21/2019 - 7:05am

A surprise attack might allow

By Rod Knee
Tue, 08/20/2019 - 6:01pm

A surprise attack might allow a coyote to get a turkey, but they are as wily, plus if alerted in time they will fly to a roost and just wait out that coywolf or coyote.

A poult tree?
Nah, the kids don't fly so good.

Yeah, I didn't think so.

By jmeltzer
Wed, 08/21/2019 - 9:03am

I suspect the coyote would "win", but that it would be a Pyrrhic victory. Not worth the effort.

Have patience

By anon
Tue, 08/20/2019 - 12:57pm

the K Street coyote or G Street fox will be visiting shortly.

Easy solution

By Chef Boy-Ar-Dee
Tue, 08/20/2019 - 4:05pm

Just leave a couple cans of cranberry sauce in the yard. Even if the turkeys are illiterate (likely) they'll still recognize the picture on the cans, and if they have a lick of sense they'll skedaddle.

Let us know how that works out.

Nice to see everyone likes to

By NoAloha
Tue, 08/20/2019 - 10:26pm

Nice to see everyone likes to make jokes and I’ll agree they’re a sight to see.. however, I live on Fort Hill and over the past three + years the influx of wild turkeys has really become insane, to the point where I’m seeing them more often than not. I have a close friend that lives in Brookline off route 9 where I’d see them years prior so I figure they’ve probably slowly migrated this way. Just kind of wondering at what point do they become over populated and with all the building going on, we are surely displacing them? Is anyone from the city keeping tabs on them?

Naturally!

By Ornitholonot
Wed, 08/21/2019 - 1:54am

Of course they're migrating from Brookline. Nobody can afford the rents over there.

I'm sure that ...

By perruptor
Wed, 08/21/2019 - 7:07am

the appropriate Homeland Security branches have task forces monitoring them.

If they become overpopulated

By jmeltzer
Wed, 08/21/2019 - 9:08am

one of two things will happen, if I remember my high school biology correctly:
- Malthusian crash. After they eat up all the ... whatever turkeys eat.
- Predators move in. Okay, full grown turkeys are likely too much effort for coyotes. Time for the wolves?

For what?

By Roxres
Thu, 08/22/2019 - 1:15am

Why does the city need to keep tabs on them?

Citizen complaint of the day: Urgent turkey help needed

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