I guess it shouldn't have been surprising. I mean, I've seen them down in the south hills of Eugene. In the neighborhoods between Club Mud and Hendricks Park. There was even one who used to hang around the parking lot at the River Road Post Office.
But when seventeen wild turkeys showed up in our back yard one afternoon, I was not prepared.
I was in our tiny garden, an oversized raised bed, really, picking snow peas when they appeared. A horde of tiny dinosaurs.
Some walking in around the back porch, more flying over the roof top. Some perched up there, others grazed around the apple trees, supremely indifferent to my presence. I pulled out my cell phone and called Denise to come to the window and see. Took some not-very-good pictures. And stayed put while they flew up onto the roof, strolled over the ridgeline, and continued south along River Road.
They stayed in the neighborhood for several days, strolling through from the Lutheran Church lot next door, across our front lawn, and down the street. A week later, they were gone again.
Wild Turkeys have a long history in the U.S., associated with the first Thanksgiving (though not specifically mentioned: freshly killed deer, assorted wildfowl, a bounty of cod and bass). By the1930s, they were nearly hunted out, and attempts to restock with human-reared birds was not successful. Eventually, trap-and-relocate efforts with wild breeding stock, along with some introduced Mexican birds, helped the population rebound throughout the continental U.S., including some places not formerly part of their range, including parts of Canada. They do well adjoining farmland, eat seeds and fruit and acorns, and have become thoroughly at home in residential city neighborhoods like ours.
So I suppose it's long past time I put turkeys on pottery. Started with a platter, last Thanksgiving, a pie plate this winter. I expect them on tall mugs and dinner plates soon, maybe some other forms as well. I don't expect them to stay on the shelves long.
People just gobble them up.