Fran and I took advantage of the mild weather in February of 2022 to go for a walk in the Arboretum and the Moss Hill neighborhood of Jamaica Plain.
As we approached the dead end of a Moss Hill street, we noticed three large wild turkeys walking down the sidewalk. We were in the middle of the street, and other than to point a camera at them to take their picture, we assumed they would stay where they were, and we could continue to walk up the street.
We have run into similar groups of large birds in neighborhood parks, and while they can be aggressive; in all the 30+ years of interacting with them, I have never felt in the least bit threatened because if they ever got too close, I could raise my arms over my head and yell at them, and that would always be enough to make them back away.
For some reason, two of the three birds headed straight for me and started trying to peck at me. I tried the "hands up over my head" trick, but they kept coming. Then I tried shaking my foot at them, but they would not back down. I started moving slowly backward down the road, but they kept coming. This was something more than invading their territory, and they had no young to protect so I am not sure what was responsible for their aggression.
After a struggle, I was able to put my camera in the small bag around my neck and I started to swing the camera bag at them. While this was able to keep them at a safe distance, they kept following me as I walked backward down the street. About this time, one of the residents on the street came out of his house with a broom, and apparently, this was the signal to the turkeys that two birds were wise to retreat in the face of two humans. They turned around, and we walked back down the street with our fellow human and his magic broom. After returning to our car, we drove past the turkeys to see if we could see a nest or baby birds anywhere. We could not, but perhaps they were just well hidden.
