Montreal’s West Island reporting increased wild turkey sightings

If you live in the suburbs and you feel like you’ve been seeing more and more wild turkeys around, you are not alone.

Several were spotted in Montreal’s West Island this week, and experts say it’s a trend being witnessed in many suburban areas.

“We looked out, and there were six turkeys that day on our front lawn,” said Pointe-Claire resident Wanda Holst of an episode a few weeks earlier.

Holst and Michael Lord were surprised and very amused to see the turkeys on their law chomping on grass seed.

In 50 years living in Pointe-Claire, she had never seen a wild turkey there.

“It was just a fun happening,” she said. “The neighbourhood was kind of excited.”

The sightings didn’t stop there. Turkeys were spotted by Global News in a Pointe-Claire back yard just this past Thursday.

“There are a lot of sightings that have been remarked. We’re hearing a lot about it,” said Elizabeth Landry, a biologist at the Ecomuseum Zoo west of Montreal.

Landry says more and more suburbanites who come to the zoo are asking about the wild turkeys they’re spotting.

“It’s a good thing!” she exclaimed.

Experts say years of hunting and habitat destruction almost wiped wild turkeys out of the Northeast completely.

Conservation efforts and stricter hunting rules in recent years have helped their population steadily grow all over, including in the suburbs.

“The reason why we’re seeing more of them on the island in suburban areas is because there’s a lack of predators,” said Dr. Tadeusz Splawinsky, Canadian Wild Turkey Federation biologist and forest ecologist at the University of Quebec in Abitibi-Temiscamingue.

“There’s an abundance of food there, and this species, they’re quite generalists, so they they eat a wide variety of food.”

Turkeys are not dangerous as long as you give them space, though the more colourful males may get aggressive during spring mating season.

“It’s up to us to kind of read those signs and be an observer and not an encroacher,” said Landry.

Splawinsky is more concerned about the large birds flying into windows, or getting hit by cars.

“The main issue really with regards to safety is the fact that they can weigh from 10 to 30 pounds and they fly and so they can go through windshields very easily,” he explained.

He pointed to the story of Butters, a wild turkey beloved by the community in NDG who was killed when struck by a car. He said too many people were trying to get photos of the bird, and following it around. One day, Butters ran into oncoming traffic.

“Really, the lesson here is just leave them be. Don’t facilitate their life because it’s only going to cause a problem down the line,” he said.

Both experts advise not getting close for photos, and say feeding the birds is a very bad idea.

“We want them to have this innate fear of humans and predators. When we start to leave food hanging around for them feeding them we start to desensitize them and they start to be less weary of us and that’s when you cause a problem,” Landry said.

If they do set up in one of your trees, there are different strategies.

Landry says allowing them to live naturally without intervening at all is the best choice, and reminds people that humans are responsible for pushing the birds out of their natural habitat.

Splawinsky said if the birds are becoming a problem on your territory, making noise or spraying them with a hose are options.

As their population grows, some people may be uncomfortable. Not Lord and Holst, however.

“We’re much more worried about the squirrels,” said Holst. “We’ve got more squirrels than we can shake a stick at.”

They said they’d have no problem seeing more turkeys roaming around Pointe-Claire.