Turkey is on the minds of many at this time of year, and the students and staff at the schools on Mackworth Island in Falmouth are no different. Except they’re not thinking of plump, roasted birds on the dinner table, they’re thinking about birds that are very much alive and creating a nuisance on the island.
“We had about eight last year, and now they’ve multiplied,” said Jim Gemmell, director of communications for the Governor Baxter School for the Deaf, when asked about the population of wild turkeys on the island, where the Friends School and the REAL School also are housed.
“Now their population is getting bigger and they’re coming closer to us,” Gemmell added. “We occupy the same island, and they know we’re harmless.”
With this surge in population, encounters between people and turkeys are becoming more common. Gemmell reported multiple incidents of staff members being chased during the spring mating season.
Earlier this fall, a tom turkey flew into a window at the school. The glass was shattered, but no one was hurt. The bird survived and continues to roam with the flock on the island. School officials also have concerns about the growing deposits of turkey droppings near the buildings.
In response, officials from the Governor Baxter School contacted the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. The solution offered to the school was to either trap the turkeys and re-locate them or to bring in bowhunters to reduce their numbers.
Gemmell said school officials didn’t like the idea of hunting or removing the birds.
“We have to take care of them, because that’s part of our stewardship,” Gemmell said.
The island is governed by the Department of Conservation, which also didn’t appreciate the plan to cull the turkeys. Instead, the school is trying a practice known as “hazing.”
“Hazing is something that is going to allow wildlife to remain wild,” said Scott Lindsay, a regional wildlife biologist with the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
The practice aims to train the birds to fear humans. This can mean speaking to the turkeys in a forceful manner, chasing them away from the buildings and using loud noises and quick movements to deter the turkeys from coming too close.
“Their numbers are increasing and their geographic range is increasing,” Lindsay said. “It’s gotten to the point where people feel threatened by them, because they are large and the males during breeding season can get a bit aggressive.”
On the island, the turkeys can be found near the picnic area and the playground behind the school and sometimes around the Baxter mansion that houses the school’s administrative offices.
Lindsay said it is possible for the turkeys to fly off the island to the mainland or other surrounding islands. But he said the birds prefer to walk and likely spend most of their time on the island.
Turkeys frequent areas with mature forests and eat a wide-variety of foods, with nuts, such as acorns, forming a crucial part of their diet. During the winter months, large groups of turkeys often roost together. Cold is not a problem for turkeys, but deep snow is. When deep, powdery snow covers the ground for an extended period of time, turkeys have trouble foraging for food and can die from starvation.
Lindsay said these colonies of roosting turkeys can create an early morning disturbance for nearby residents, when the birds wake around 4:30 a.m.
“It’s like 60 B-52s coming out of the trees and then they start clucking and hollering,” Lindsay said.
As far as turkeys actually harming people, Lindsay said he has not heard of any incidents, although the male turkeys do have sharp spurs on their legs.
“Most of the time, (the turkeys) are bluffing,” Lindsay said. “Not to say they couldn’t potentially make contact. But I’m not aware of that happening.”
With the wild turkey population in Maine on the increase (it is now estimated at between 25,000 and 30,000 birds), encounters with humans will only rise. Whether these birds are perceived as a nuisance or a natural wonder will be up to us.
“Anytime there are people living in proximity to wildlife there will be issues,” Lindsay said. “But I think in most cases people do enjoy them, because it’s a new species of watchable wildlife.”