Wild Turkeys in Staten Island ?

So in a bid to be a bit more consistent in posts to my blog I began to think about what to write for today's article. I was driving back after dropping my daughter off at schools and then almost ran over the idea.

In a strange turn of events this morning, the radio mentioned something about Turkey's for Thanksgiving, when a Wild Turkey darted out in front of my car. Now this might not seem strange to folks that live in a rural environment, but I live in Staten Island which is a borough of NYC.

I was bit baffled to see wildlife like this within the confines of NYC, yet pleasantly surprised. I proceeded on my way back home, and then realized that this would be as good a topic as any to write about for the day. I ran inside the house grabbed the monster camera and proceeded back to the scene of the original Turkey sighting.

Upon arrival about a minute later, I found a car in front of me, that had just stumbled upon the same sighting. He had stopped his car in the middle of traffic to snap a picture of the gobbler. It didn't bother me any as I was actually on a mission to snap a couple of pics myself, but the drivers behind us who has just arrived, and had no clear line of vision of the fowl, honked us to proceed.

I swung around, parked the four wheel drive, and the safari was on. The bird then positioned itself in front of the gates of St. Johns University, which I found to be quite humorous, because Mr. Gobble Gobble had camouflaged himself perfectly into the background and display. I watched with amusement as passing motorists simply went on there merry way probably thinking the turkey was of the ceramic sort. I snapped a few pictures myself then realized that even my pictures could not tell the truth of the matter so I flipped the camera into movie mode and filmed the same.

The turkey then called out,with a warble, as if to indicate that if I was done with my photo session, if it could be on it's way, and then dashed towards me to be rid of my intrusion of his morning.

I snapped a few more pictures of the bird as it approached my vehicle wondering if it was angry enough at me to take it's frustration out on the paint of my vehicle, but no...It just wanted to be on it's way.

All in all a great little experience to start the day. Upon return to mi casa, I did a quick search on google and found that others have come across these Staten Island birds as well. Apparently one of our councilmen has even thought that these wild Turkeys were a problem, and had asked environmental agents to curb the growth of these creatures.


Well, other then his apparent frustration with these birds, the article didn't mention any actual reasons as to his request...All I know is that I had a great start to day with my interaction with nature today. With that said, I hope the wild bird today will excuse the fact that his brethren will be part of or feast for next week.