Turkeys of Wildwood
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“As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.” — Arthur Carlson, WKRP, Turkey Drop episode, 1978
It may be wrong, but I have rarely laughed so hard as when fictional, endlessly earnest, perpetually bandaged radio journalist Les Nessman reported on a Thanksgiving promotion gone wrong. Commercial turkeys were released from a helicopter with the expectation they could fly. Instead, they plummeted to earth, hitting the ground like “sacks of wet cement.”
Domestic turkeys can’t fly. However, wild turkeys can, and one has flown into Wildwood.
Supplied photo by Heather Westdal
A wild turkey in Wildwood Park.
Wildwood used to be home to many turkeys. When I bought my house in 2007, before possession I took a friend to see it. As we passed, I saw two creatures, rather large, on my lawn. Never having seen a wild turkey, I screamed, “what the hell are those things” and circled back for a second look. My friend, a country girl, easily identified them as wild turkeys.
Neither a hallucination nor a one-off sighting, I was fascinated to learn the park was home to an undetermined number of wild turkeys roaming about. More than curiosities, they were fixtures. Residents fondly remember them. They watched the young ones fledge, spotted their tree-top sleeping quarters and their eggs, named them. One long-time resident, Alan Bouch, remembers his son’s first word was turkey, due to constantly seeing a large number of turkeys on their front lawn.
Then slowly, there were fewer and fewer, until one day there were none. Why? Was it a natural die-out of the birds as the females passed, leaving one lonely tom? Were they relocated? Were they culled to control their spread? The answer? Depends who you ask.
Many people miss their presence. Maybe I live in a fairytale, but I imagine a park once again teeming with wild turkeys, along with the deer, bunnies and foxes, as daily fixtures on my walks. Others don’t share that vision.
Regardless, one has made its way back. How did it get here? Obviously, it flew, but why did it come? Were stories passed down in wild turkey world about a time, long ago, when turkeys freely roamed Wildwood? Are they pondering coming back? Was a brave, lone turkey sent to scout the park, planning their eventual return to their previous roosting grounds?
Who knows, but if one has been spotted, there could be more on their way. I for one, would welcome them.