Too much turkey: Wild birds invade B.C. neighbourhood, make 'a fine mess'
'They just won’t move. They are confident, not a thing is worrying them,' Mill Bay resident says
A group of rogue turkeys that has taken up residence in a Vancouver Island subdivision better smarten up before they end up on the Christmas dinner table.
Residents in Mill Bay, B.C., north of Victoria, have spotted almost a dozen of the birds hanging out in the neighbourhood, roosting on cars and riling up local dogs. They appeared without explanation and residents say they are causing a bit of chaos in the community.
Marie Adam has lived in the area for 45 years and was surprised to find about nine members of the fowl gang in her yard recently.
"I look out the window and lo and behold there is a big flock of turkeys," Adam said on CBC's All Points West. "Just in the backyard pecking away at the lawn."
Her dog spooked them off the property, but later that night they were back in full force.
Adam was heading to her evening book club, but when she went outside to get in her car almost a dozen turkeys were roosting on the two vehicles in her driveway.
"It felt like I'd entered the twilight zone," said Adam, whose husband had to physically move the birds because no amount of yelling would rouse them.
"They just won't move. They are confident, not a thing is worrying them," said Adam, adding they "left a fine mess" on the roof of her car.
She said she spoke with a friend of hers who lives nearby whose dog also rushed the flock when it spotted the birds. While the dog was chasing the turkeys around, Adam said her neighbour watched one of the birds fly inside her vehicle — which had the back hatch open while parked in her driveway — and perch right on her headrest.
Adam spoke with a local vet who told her the birds are "100 per cent" wild turkeys that normally hang out closer to Shawnigan Lake, a rural area less than 10 kilometres away from Mill Bay.
"We really don't want them to hang around," said Adam, who joked that another resident had pointed out people need turkeys on the table at this time of year.
To hear Marie Adam tell her turkey tale, tap the audio link below:
With files from All Points West