STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – I know that turkeys are here to stay. And I mean them no harm.
But that doesn’t mean I have to welcome them with open arms, like some of my fellow Staten Islanders seem to be doing.
The Advance had a story the other day quoting New York officials as saying that our ever-growing turkey population was now the “status quo” and that Staten Islanders would just have to deal with them.
Again, no surprise.
But what was a bit shocking was all the turkey love that I saw in the comment sections on social media when the story published.
“Leave ‘em alone…they’re cute,” said one poster on Instagram.
“I love the turkeys. They are awesome,” said another.
“They were here before us and they’ll be here after us,” one poster wrote.
You gotta be kidding me.
I was born and raised on Staten Island. I’ve been here nearly all of my 60 years on planet Earth, so let me tell you: we never, never, never saw turkeys on Staten Island. Except on our dinner plates at Thanksgiving.
If they were here before us, they kept to themselves. They certainly weren’t wandering around in the same numbers they are now.
The Advance began reporting on turkey sightings on Staten Island back in the 1990s. And we all know that the area around Staten Island University Hospital in Ocean Breeze has since then been a notorious roosting ground for the creatures.
But the birds have spread far and wide beyond the hospital area now. They are everywhere, from the North Shore to the South, from the East Shore to the West.
And we’re not just talking about one or two turkeys here and there. We’re talking about big groups of turkeys, a dozen or two dozen at a time sometimes.
Gang of turkeys take a lunch break in a North Shore backyard. (Tom Wrobleski/Staten Island Advance)Tom Wrobleski/Staten Island Advance
They block traffic. They surround or sit on top of cars. They make a lot of noise, sometimes before sunrise in the morning. They roost on top of people’s homes.
They can be a nuisance.
A post shared by Tom Wrobleski (@capt_saturn)
But, again, I don’t wish them harm. I don’t think that people should take matters into their own hands and go on turkey killing sprees. I don’t think people should run them over with their cars. I don’t think we should throw rocks at them.
That said, we have chased turkeys from our property with a Super Soaker. I have tossed a small tree branch along the ground at them when they’ve blocked me from getting to my car. Turkeys will generally get out of your way without too much fuss. Brave, they ain’t.
And some of the social media posters are right. It’s a good thing that our environment has improved to the point where wildlife like turkeys can flourish. And various creatures do have their purposes in the ecosystem.
But only to a point. Things have to be managed. You can’t let communities get overrun by wild animals. And that’s what’s happening now.
But we’re obviously beyond the point where we can totally eradicate turkeys from the Island. There will be no mass hunting. There will be no great relocation. There won’t even be anything akin to the city’s neutering program for deer.
It might have been different if New York officials had acted when we first started seeing the turkeys here three decades ago.
But government is never that fleet-footed. Just remember how long it took them to even acknowledge that we had a deer problem here.
So the turkeys are here to stay.
Just don’t expect me to roll out the red carpet for them.
Turkeys may be here to stay, but that doesn’t mean I have to love them (opinion)
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29.02.2024
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – I know that turkeys are here to stay. And I mean them no harm.
But that doesn’t mean I have to welcome them with open arms, like some of my fellow Staten Islanders seem to be doing.
The Advance had a story the other day quoting New York officials as saying that our ever-growing turkey population was now the “status quo” and that Staten Islanders would just have to deal with them.
Again, no surprise.
But what was a bit shocking was all the turkey love that I saw in the comment sections on social media when the story published.
“Leave ‘em alone…they’re cute,” said one poster on Instagram.
“I love the turkeys. They are awesome,” said another.
“They were here before us and they’ll be here after us,” one poster wrote.
You gotta be kidding me.
I was born and raised on Staten Island. I’ve been here nearly all of my 60........
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