[UA] Belated Thanksgiving Weirdness

[James Ganong]

"Attack" Turkeys Terrorize Maplewood
CARMEN JURI
STAR LEDGER STAFF WRITER 
Call it revenge of the turkeys. 
Roving turkeys have descended upon Maplewood, NJ, and have been
terrorizing people who live near the South Mountain Reservation. 
Think it's a joke? 
It's not. Packs of the 41/2-foot tall turkeys have been spotted resting
atop roofs, crossing busy intersections, and boldly dropping in to front
lawns and back yards. Now it seems they've expanded their tour to
Millburn as well. 
The irony, eyewitnesses say, is that they seem to appear around
Thanksgiving. 
Are they tempting fate? 
"Don't they know they should be hiding at this time of year?" wrote one
local on the Maplewood-South Orange message board on the Web. 
Maplewood has always had an abundance of wildlife. Deer routinely walk
on front lawns and peer into living room windows. The turkeys are a
fairly recent phenomenon -- appearing in just the past three or four
years. 
"It's kind of strange," said Police Chief Robert Cimino. "I'm on the job
almost 20 years, and I don't recall having this problem when I was an
officer on the road." 
Cimino recalls the police getting several reports of turkey sightings
last year, but none so far this season. Perhaps the locals are getting
used to their new neighbors. 
"People get a little concerned they may advance on them or advance on
the children," Cimino said. "It's pretty much isolated in the western
part of town by the reservation, above Wyoming Avenue." 
Last year, Cimino notified animal-control officer John Vincent, who then
contacted the state Division of Fish and Wildlife, which removed about
10 of them. 
Vincent believes somebody must have dumped the turkeys in the
reservation. 
"It's the same thing that happens at Easter time when kids get chickens
or rabbits and get tired of them," Vincent said. "Out they go." 
He said the "Rio Grande" turkeys, as they are called, come from out
west, from states such as Colorado. They are not considered wild, since
wild turkeys will run if they see a human. 
Not these birds. 
"They aren't afraid of people. They come up and look at you," Vincent
said. "During mating season, they may get a little frisky, but I haven't
heard of any attacking anyone." 
Liz Mirman's husband, Brian, tried to shoo away a bird that positioned
itself on his front step. The angry turkey began attacking Brian, who
had to go inside for a broom to defend himself. 
"My husband almost got bitten by one," said Mirman, of South Collingwood
Road in Maplewood. "They're very brazen, not afraid of people at all." 
Margarita Saborio said she baby-sits an adolescent on Collingwood Road
who runs into the house every time he sees a turkey on the front lawn.
She said the boy's father had to defend his son from a pack a couple
years ago. 
Sometimes they appear in groups of 10 or 15. 
"They chased me to my truck one time," said Aron Rolley, a clerk at the
Maplewood Post Office who used to deliver mail in the Wyoming Avenue
vicinity. "They stand in the middle of the street and don't move." 
Another time, Rolley said, a bunch of them surrounded his mail truck. 
"I stopped delivering that part of the route," he said. 
Alex Tomea of Crestwood Drive said he spotted a bunch of turkeys
cornering a cat. And one time, a turkey jumped on the hood of the car
his brother was trying to back out of the driveway. 
"He (the turkey) wouldn't move," Tomea said. 
Several people in Maplewood have written about their turkey run-ins on
the Maplewood-South Orange Web Board site. One wrote that a "flock"
began getting somewhat intimate with a Realtor's car every time she
beeped her horn. 
Another detailed how her bike-riding husband was chased along Sagamore
Road by three turkeys. She thought he was joking, until the couple went
to the scene and a turkey came over and pecked their car nastily,
leaving a dent. 
Here's another account: "One day last year I was walking up Claremont
Avenue on my way to the reservation. Just near the curve on the last leg
to the top there was a male turkey and about six females. I was wearing
a red jacket. Well, that male came after me, clucking like mad. 
"He was one angry bird. I was stunned and started running. We ran down
the hill. I said to myself, 'What are you doing? You are running away
from a turkey?' I tell you, he was one mean, angry turkey. I finally ran
up on a lawn, grabbed a stick and turned to do battle. 
"He stopped, stared at me a bit, suddenly realized he'd left his females
unprotected and off he went. A man had been out in his yard and seen it
all. At first he laughed, but then he just stared open-mouthed." 
Another writer added humor to her story: "The Maplewood Six, as I called
them last year, wandered down to stroll on Maplewood Avenue one foggy
morning. They meandered right down the middle of the street, stopping
traffic until they decided to move their damp feathered butts. 
"I handed them some corn flakes, which they seemed to enjoy. Then I
remembered that it is a rooster that's on the Kellogg's box. I guess I
was trying to pre-stuff them for Thanksgiving." 
Mafalda Carmiche, a crossing guard at Lenox and Wyoming avenues, said
she was stunned they could fly so high. And their long necks struck her
as unusual. 
Vincent said he stands at 5'11" and one turkey was as tall as his chest. 
But these birds don't have to worry about being stuffed, basted and
carved for tomorrow's Thanksgiving Day meal. Vincent said they aren't
raised for human consumption. 
One writer on the Web site wished they could be put to work serving
another purpose. 
"If only the turkey could eat the deer."


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