Wild turkeys still flocking to East Davis

A flock of wild turkeys basks in the late-afternoon sunshine Wednesday in the field adjacent to the Davis Cemetery at Pole Line Road and East Eighth Street. The turkeys had made the old Chiles barn near the cemetery their recent base, but are homeless now that the barn has been torn down to make way for a housing development. Wayne Tilcock/Enterprise photo

The turkeys that began patrolling the Davis Cemetery and surrounding areas five years ago, bullying visitors and East Davis residents, still stick close to the neighborhood. However, by most accounts, they aren’t nearly as much of a problem as they once were.

But the turkeys recently found themselves homeless as the old Chiles barn they used as a base was torn down to make way for the Chiles Ranch development of 108 homes by Steve Sherman and Don Fouts. The site is on East Eighth Street just east of the cemetery.

The original family of nine — a tom, a hen and seven offspring — used to intimidate families during funeral services and bother local residents near their homes.

Davis Cemetery office manager Susan Finkleman remembers the toms, and their surly attitudes.

“A long time ago, the dad was not afraid of people and his two sons were not afraid of people,” Finkleman said. “The three — the father and the two sons — hung out together a lot, and because they weren’t afraid of people, they were somewhat territorial.

“These guys would kind of walk right up to you and look at you with their beady little eyes and they would try to intimidate you. They went everywhere around the neighborhood.”

Those original turkeys had grown comfortable around the Davis Cemetery, but eventually were trapped and relocated, leaving a less aggressive gaggle of turkeys in their stead.

But some East Davis residents say they still cause a bit of a nuisance.

Matthew Sartori, a senior at UC Davis studying economics, encounters the turkeys while he’s running or biking to and from class.

“I see them around a lot; they’re always getting in people’s way on the street,” Sartori said Thursday.

“You usually assume wild turkeys are afraid of people but these aren’t afraid of anybody. Most of the time they hang around the cemetery and around it. They pretty much don’t really bother anyone unless you provoke them to.”

The turkeys may not be as aggressive as the original bids, but they can still intimidate people, especially as some of the larger toms can grow upwards of 30 pounds.

John McNerney, the city of Davis’ wildlife resource specialist, explains some of the “do’s and dont’s” should someone encounter a wild turkey.

“First and foremost you don’t want to feed them,” McNerney said. “That’s one of the problems we have in Davis. There are some good-meaning people out there that like to feed the turkeys and when you do that it tends to cause a change in their activities.

“It causes them to drift away from finding natural food sources and it also habituates them to people and so they start associating people with food and they can become a little aggressive when they’re interacting with people.

“If you encounter a turkey acting a little aggressively don’t back down from them,” he advised. “I think what happens a lot of times is that people will turn and run and that kind of eggs them on. Instinctually, they want to give chase and that just exacerbates the issue.

“If you slowly walk away they’ll eventually leave you alone. It’s very rare that they will actually make contact with someone.”

For further information about turkeys or other wildlife in the area, check out the city of Davis Environmental Guide, http://cityofdavis.org/pw/recycling/Enviro_Guide/pdfs/Davis_Environment

In South Davis, a UC Davis employee has reported seeing a turkey that has been impaled by an arrow.

According to Janice Mackey, a public information officer of the California Department of Fish and Game, a specialist has been out to see the injured turkey and has deemed that he is in stable condition.

McNerney also went to see the injured bird earlier this week, but admits that approaching and apprehending the turkey will be a challenge.

“At the time I was trying to recover it, it still had its health and its energy and vigor,” McNerney said. “It was extremely difficult to get near it and so it was definitely not easy to catch by hand at that point.”

According to McNerney, Yolo County soon may put out a trap to catch the bird.

— Reach Tom Sakash at tsakash@davisenterprise.net or (530) 747-8057. Follow him on Twitter at @TomSakash 

Short URL: http://www.davisenterprise.com/?p=103539

Posted by Tom Sakash on Nov 11 2011.
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