Hyde Park's golf-course area under siege by amok turkeys running roughshod

Hyde Park residents living on either side of the George Wright Golf Course are increasingly reporting small marauding packs of overstuffed turkeys are making life increasingly difficult.

Residents in the area of Garfield Avenue and Summer and Austin Streets, near Trinity Academy and the entrance to Stony Brook Reservation, have been complaining for a couple of months now about bodacious Bodega Bay bad boys going after pedestrians, cars, pretty much anything that moves. And things that don't move, like cars in a driveway, they say, are likely to become pecking targets for these angry Butterballs.

A weekend discussion in the Hyde Park Neighbors Facebook group is full of accounts: One woman reports she now has to take her two children out to the car one at a time, because she needs to keep one hand free with which to wield a broom to find the birds off; another resident posted a video of two of the larger birds just waiting for her to get out of the car - and when her friend blew the horn, they didn't even move, they just stood there and gobbled, tauntingly.

This morning on Nextdoor, a resident in the area of West and DeForest streets, on the other side of the golf course, reported:

I'm being held hostage in my house by two turkeys strutting in my front yard. They attempted to attack a motorist who stopped and tried to shoo them off of West St. I have to go to work!

State officials recommend:

Don’t hesitate to scare or threaten a bold, aggressive turkey with loud noises, swatting with a broom or water sprayed from a hose. A dog on a leash is also an effective deterrent.

Ed. note: We live on Grew Hill, up the hill from that intersection. We spotted what are probably the same two turkeys yesterday afternoon, up the hill on MacDonald Street, but they seemed pretty calm and respectful, if not exactly turkeys you'd want to tussle with. Maybe the extra oxygen at the lower elevations along West Street makes them feistier. At one point, we heard one of those tiny little yap dogs barking at them - from behind its owner's solid (we hope) door.