Wild turkeys a nuisance in the city of Grand Coulee

Hey, aren’t those wild turkeys cute?

That depends upon whom you ask.

One person who has changed her mind on turkeys is Helen Jordan in Grand Coulee’s East Heights.

“When I came here five years ago and first saw the wild turkeys, I was so excited,” she said.

Not now!

How would you like it if 42 turkeys took over your lawn, patio, and driveway?

That’s how many she has seen in a single occasion.

For one thing, it trains you to step lightly and tip toe around your property.

Recently, Helen, who is going on 84, tried to go out and get her mail. Three times several toms, she stated, came toward her in a menacing manner and chased her back into the house.

“They have very sharp spurs and I’m afraid of them,” Helen said.

It isn’t unusual to see wild turkeys around here. But 42 in your yard?

Helen called on the state Fish & Wildlife Department and was told, among other things, that the turkeys had been here before humans.

The F&W people said they would get back to her. She’s still waiting for the phone to ring.

No one else seems interested in helping her.

“I hear them all the time now,” Jordan said of the big fowl. “They stop at my place either on the way to water or coming back from their watering hole.”

Wild turkeys were reintroduced in local counties many years ago by the Wild Turkey Federation.

So Helen is open for suggestions.

She said that her property is stained by turkey droppings.

“I take my shoes off when I come into the house and sometimes forget to check them when I put them back on,” Helen said.

“I know that some of my neighbors won’t like it that I am talking about it. But some will,” she stated.

She said that those coming to her property now are mostly toms. “The hens are setting on the nests,” Helen said.

She looks toward the day that a batch of little ones accompany the adults onto her property.

Any ideas, anyone?