It was Wild Kingdom weekend in my neighborhood

DH and I were outside gardening on Saturday afternoon when my neighbor stopped by to chat. She said that her husband was sitting one morning on their porch and watched three deer stroll down the block.

We live in St. James, it's fairly residential and in looking at the map, about one and a half miles from the nearest place that could be considered "woods".

He said they were walking on people's lawns, grazing, and made a turn to go towards the train tracks. He said he was waiting to see if they came to my yard, because I have about 50 ornamental flowers and shrubs outside my fence! I've heard horror stories about deer and always thought, thank God I don't have the problem.

Then... Sunday morning, had to be about 6am, I'm woken up by something that sounded like a child's bicycle horn. Ho-onk. Ho-onk. Sloooooowly going past my bedroom window.

I'm thinking it must be the kid down the block that is always being yelled at for something. But it's too quiet and I don't hear bicycle tires.

I sit up, put my glasses on, and look out the window to see a BIG @SS bird. I'm like what the HECK is this now? I watch it walk down the block, again towards the train station, thinking... This is nuts.

Same neighbor tells me that he was out on the porch, saw the whole thing, and that it was a TURKEY. A friggin turkey.



This is crazy! Anyone else seen deer or turkeys running around their suburban neighborhood?

Re: It was Wild Kingdom weekend in my neighborhood

I saw deer on Pulaski Rd in FortSalonga , and I saw some Turkey on the shoulder of sunken meadow parkway over the weekend.... its CRAZY!

Re: It was Wild Kingdom weekend in my neighborhood

I've seen a turkey in Batery Park in Manhattan. Apparently she wandered through the city & lives there now.

I don't really have woods near me--I live near a parkway & a railroad station & I was told 2 years ago there were deer spotted in my complex.

Re: It was Wild Kingdom weekend in my neighborhood

we also saw tons of wildlife this weekend!
we saw a bear cub trying to cross rt 287 in north nj and saw deer and a hawk eating a carcass on the road
and tons of road kill.
we have cute little chipmunks in our yard too.

Re: It was Wild Kingdom weekend in my neighborhood

I just get some pretty birds & some times raccoons.

but you are cracking me up with your turkey story. I can just picture you sitting up and putting on your glasses and then the look on your face as the turkey walks by. Where the dogs going crazy?

Re: It was Wild Kingdom weekend in my neighborhood

Yes, where I live.

I live in very residential area, but it's also surrounded by a nature reservation.

On a daily basis we have

countless deer in our backyard
I've seen a fox roaming around in the early morning
Wild Turkeys
We have a groundhog that lives under the swingset
chipmunks
there are black bear in our area (I've never seen one, but they caught one last summer on my street)
I had to stop the other day for a turtle crossing the street

Re: It was Wild Kingdom weekend in my neighborhood

Re: It was Wild Kingdom weekend in my neighborhood

We just get small birds and squirrels. Sometimes the occasional stray cat.

Re: It was Wild Kingdom weekend in my neighborhood

awesome!!!!

Re: It was Wild Kingdom weekend in my neighborhood

Posted by greenfreak
Brinkley was. He could see it out the front window, sauntering by. First you would hear ho-onk, then Brinkley's one "woof!" and then my "shhh!"

ho-onk
woof!
shhhh!
ho-onk
woof!
shhhh!



Brinkley lowered his volume each time to match the ho-onk volume. Rusty and I were laughing, which I'm sure didn't help.

Re: It was Wild Kingdom weekend in my neighborhood

Wild turkeys totally took over my neighborhood last fall.... It was so weird. There were some Newsday articles on it, and a ton of editorial responses in my local town paper. Basically, people were b!tching that the neighbors were feeding the turkeys, hence having them linger around the property.

one day, they literally came right up into our driveway... They were hanging on our front lawn all day. That night, DH went out late to put the trash out and sees the turkeys settling down for the night on our ROOF!

This was them in our driveway:



First spotted walking down the street up the road from my house:

Message edited 6/14/2010 10:00:08 PM.

Re: It was Wild Kingdom weekend in my neighborhood

not suburban but the coyote that was loose in manhattan a few months ago ran right in front of me lol

Re: It was Wild Kingdom weekend in my neighborhood

Omg that second picture is hilarious! It's like ... hey, don't mind me, just taking a walk.

I read more in Newsday about them and apparently there's a large population in Smithtown, so it makes more sense now. People were complaining that the males were scratching up cars, fighting with their reflections during mating season. I could see where that could be a problem... and turkey poop everywhere.

But I'd take them over deer any day. Hopefully the scent of the dogs (and my watchdog Brinkley) will keep them away.

My friend told me to spray my plants with Franks Red Hot as a preventative. I think I'm going to do that this weekend. I already have to spray for the rabbits, what's one more thing?

Re: It was Wild Kingdom weekend in my neighborhood

I am on the border of st james/ smithtown, and we had a peacock roaming around, i took pictures, and followed it for a bit. My kids loved it. It was at around 7am...

Re: It was Wild Kingdom weekend in my neighborhood

We have deer here all the time - I am in westhampton, I've also seen peacocks strolling around - very weird...

Re: It was Wild Kingdom weekend in my neighborhood

Re: It was Wild Kingdom weekend in my neighborhood

Re: It was Wild Kingdom weekend in my neighborhood

Re: It was Wild Kingdom weekend in my neighborhood

I work in Kings Park & see Deer almost every night. I have also seen wild turkeys. We live on the South shore & have swans everywhere. Swans are maybe the nastiest, evil animals ever.