Attack of the Wild Turkeys!

Headline:  A feud between mail carriers and wild turkeys comes to a deadly climax in Sacramento!

This is an interesting story about aggressive turkeys that are attacking mail carriers and USP trucks in California.  People in the neighborhood were feeding them, creating stuffed turkeys without any dressing, and it is not even Thanksgiving!  These are described as huge birds; think bears with feathers.

We see occasional turkeys like this one wandering in our neighborhood, one mile from the Springfield Nature Center.  Recently our neighbors had to call the MDC wildlife damage control biologist to remove an aggressive visitor.  This is the downside of loving "nature" too much by feeding wild animals.  

Like grey squirrels and the Canada geese, which have become US citizens wintering by our ponds, as we spread out into nature some of it adapts to join us.  Most of these are due to feeding animals one way or another.  Bears and raccoons feed in our garbage and bird feeders.  Our friendly neighborhood Cooper's hawk swings by occasionally to see what morsel is rummaging in the loose seed under the mesh basket of sunflower seeds intended for the birds.

We also "feed" and house lots of critters and insects in our homes.  Ants and meal worms sneak into our kitchens for snacks and housing.  Spiders make a living in basements and closets, finding enough to eat while helping with the housekeeping.  

Rat snake supper - Nels Holmberg

We accidentally"feed" black rat snakes by hanging birdhouses which hold bite sized eggs and nestlings for their dinner. Black rat snakes often live in the crawl space under the eaves of our creek house, crawling up the concrete walls to enter a tiny crack.  They reciprocate by swallowing the pack rats and mice which are uninvited boarders. 

We consider this a fair trade although we have to peal one off of a glue trap from time to time.  A helpful hint I learned after an ungrateful BRS bit my hand and drew blood while I was saving it.....vegetable oil dissolves the glue!

Coyotes are now commonly reported in big cities where they feed mostly on rodents drawn to our garbage and only rarely on our pets. Bears in some cities like Seattle have led to creating the Urban Carnivore Project to track their wildlife. 

Here is a site with "the best turkey attack videos."  And here is what to do if you are "attacked."

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On a more personal note, I was attacked by a turkey in Turkey!  We were getting lunch at a restaurant out in the country.  Returning from a distant outhouse I saw a North American turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) standing behind the restaurant!  I approached within 5 feet and it flew up in my face and chased me as I ran away.  My wife, always concerned about my health....laughed hysterically!

I never found how it got there due to language barriers, mine, not the turkey's, but here is how it got named "turkey."