Open Terror-izers
Turkeys terrorize Wis. mail carriers
MADISON, Wis., April 8 (UPI) -- A post office manager in Madison, Wis., says delivery workers are being terrorized by wild turkeys in a West Side neighborhood.
Mara Wilhite, manager of the Hilldale Station Post Office, said between five and 10 large male turkeys have been pecking at postal carriers and occasionally attacking them with the spurs on their legs in the Parkwood Hills neighborhood, the Wisconsin State Journal (Madison) reported Tuesday.
Wilhite said one turkey barged into a mail truck's open door and scratched the surprised driver.
Eric Lobner, regional wildlife program supervisor for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, said the turkeys' aggression is likely tied to the mating season, which started recently and lasts until mid-May. He said the red, white and blue coloring on the mail trucks could be raising the ire of the birds, whose heads change color between blue, white and red during the mating season.
True, every word of it. Scary critters. I was driving down the road and one took off out of the ditch and matched my speed right at window level. I slowed, the better to watch him, and all of a sudden he cut right in front of me. If I hadn't been decelerating he would have come right in the window.
ReplyDeleteNot the brightest birds, but big!