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Once-scarce wild turkeys show up en masse in northern Colorado — and their neighbors have stories

A school of wild turkeys crosses a road intersection in one Colorado town.
Doug Conarroe
/
The Colorado Sun
Ten wild turkeys cross the street in a west Longmont neighborhood on March 16, not far from the St. Vrain River and a chain of green spaces that provide more natural habitat for the birds.

Turkeys generally get the spotlight for one day out of the year, and it’s not for the most desirable outcome, at least if you’re a turkey.

But Colorado residents are reporting more turkeys in their towns than ever before along the Front Range, and it’s getting them some mad publicity even though Thanksgiving is months away.

When the Greeley Police Department posted about turkeys on Facebook, it got more responses than, well, anything, except perhaps when police found a car in a lake at one of the city’s most popular parks. The post was shared nearly 800 times and about half that number of people commented, many offering stories about their own encounters with the big birds.

EMTs said the turkeys liked to chase them from their ambulances and not allow them back inside the garage. Kody Wilson, a popular Greeley freelance weatherman, said he had a standoff with the turkeys in his car and lost (he didn’t offer details and was too busy to talk, but he did live to post about it). Others said the turkeys chased them, but then others said the resident Canada geese not only had greater numbers, they seemed far sassier.

Occasionally some Greeley residents have called the police or Colorado Parks and Wildlife to report the turkeys, but mostly that’s out of concern for the birds, not their property, their pets or themselves. One Greeley turkey is missing a foot, which prompted dozens of concerned callers (the bird, just like humans, could still get around pretty well).

To read the entire story, visit The Colorado Sun.