5 October 06

Frisbees for Turkeys

As I get ready to start putting plants into this herb garden, my thoughts turn to the visitors we have twice a day.

The extended turkey family (3 hens and multiple adolescents) passes through here morning and evening like a panzer division on patrol, eating everything in its path. They used to be shy. Now they stare me down as if they own the place. I fear for my salvias.

I don’t want to fence this garden in, so I’m hoping a) they don’t like oregano, b) they will be deterred by the five frisbees I found at work today, new and unused in a file cabinet. I’ll leave them outside as ready ammunition….

(Note: wild turkeys are NOT native to California and were introduced at great expense and effort by the California Department of Fish and Game for hunting. Now they are proliferating wildly, eating acorns and people’s gardens and terrifying rottweilers.)

Posted by at 08:58 PM in Gardening | Link |
  1. Evidently, Chaparral House, the nursing home in west Berkeley where we work on the garden, has a turkey hen who makes the rounds of the bird feeders at least once a day. She goes for spilled seed; doesn’t yet try to get onto the feeders. She ignored the half-dozen of us meeting in the garden gazebo Wednesday, through she obviously knew we were there. For one thing, I kept exclaiming, “That’s a TURKEY!” rather loudly.

    She probably came down Strawberry Creek, which borders the grounds, from one of the places in the hills where people have been seeing turkeys for the last couple years. Come to think of it, there was one seen in People’s Park last November.

    Once upon a time, the neighborhood between University Avenue and the Shattuck Avenue “gourmet ghetto” had a population of feral peafowl. Turkeys are all very well, but if we have to have exotics I’d prefer peafowl, even if they do meow all night. Why settle for half-measures?
    — Ron Sullivan    6. October 2006, 08:44    Link
  2. They terrify ROTTWEILERS? Doesn’t that turn out badly for the turkeys?
    — Doc    6. October 2006, 13:51    Link

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