Turkeys run afoul of some Marfa residents

By STERRY BUTCHER

MARFA – Marfa’s resident wild turkeys may be nearing their swan song.

Last winter or early spring, a rafter of six young turkeys suddenly showed up in town: three hens and three toms who stroll around town with cocky and comic authority. They usually travel in subsets of gender, the girls with the girls and the guys with the guys. Occasionally they’ll get together as a sextet, a long string of giant, brazen birds that coolly roll wherever they feel like going, conducting official turkey business.

“I like how they have an attitude that implies they own the town,” said turkey watcher Jack Copeland. “Everyone defers to them as they walk down the middle of the road. It’s like a symbol of Marfa, their wildness, a little place that has confidence in itself.”

They gobble contralto scales from the school crosswalk as Marfa students tumble around the playground in the morning. DPS troopers stopped traffic one day, lights flashing, as the flock crossed Hwy. 90. They sit on the wall outside the Chamberlain building, dine on the buffet of bugs caught in the grills of cars parked on Highland Avenue, admire themselves in windows, trot in formation down Plateau Street and parade in front of the courthouse, their feathers in a fully fluffinated Thanksgiving strut.

It’s a little odd, really.

“They sure don’t act like wild turkeys,” Texas Parks and Wildlife biologist Mike Sullins said. “They look like wild turkeys, though they’re a little fatter than wild turkeys. I don’t believe they’re out of the Davis Mountains and behaving like that.”

The turkeys’ origin is as mysterious as their behavior. Sullins initially thought that the gobblers were domestically raised birds that escaped their roost. Game wardens checked out a story of someone who allegedly owned them – you have to have a permit to keep a game animal – but that panned out. It appears that they are truly wild Rio Grande turkeys.

“The rumors are that there’s a wild hen northwest of town and gobblers on Alamito Creek,” said Game Warden Zach Moerbe. “These are supposedly her offspring.”

As the turkeys got older, their popularity grew.

“It has been fun to see them grow up,” said resident Carolyn Pfeiffer. “For me it is a joy to live close to any kind of wildlife.”

A lively Marfalist.org thread emerged where folks posted photos and turkey observations. Some residents spread corn in their yards to attract them. They had a cameo in a recent documentary of Marfa. The Marfa Chamber of Commerce concocted a photo contest (deadline is Monday), followed by a caption contest of the winning photo. The champion photo and caption will go on t-shirts promoting the Chamber’s 5K and 10K Turkey Trot races set for – you guessed it – the Thanksgiving holiday.

But fame can cause a downfall. What started out as cute is evolving into something else entirely. Lately, they’ve been known to chase cyclists. Drivers swerve unexpectedly to avoid hitting them. They stare down passersby.

“They’re going to get dangerous,” warned resident Robbin Marquez. “A lot of people don’t understand that they’re nice now but in spring breeding season, they’re going to be worse.”

For reasons known only to themselves, the turkeys gravitate to the school most mornings and afternoons. That’s become a problem.

“There was a turkey standoff involving a high school student when she tried to walk home last Friday,” said Superintendent Teloa Swinnea. “They had her where she couldn’t go forward or backward. Three different vehicles came to try to rescue her and shoo them, until a school bus came and opened the door and she jumped into the stairwell.”

The birds recently intimidated a child in a wheelchair, said Swinnea. Marquez said three had flapped after a small boy.

“Initially they were a novelty and we enjoyed them,” said Swinnea. “That novelty has worn off. Our number one rule at school is the safety of our students. Thanksgiving is just around the corner.”

It’s true; six well-fed, robustly healthy, free range, organic turkeys would tastily feed quite a few of us this Thanksgiving. It won’t come to that, however, since Rio Grande turkeys are protected in Presidio County. Instead, a different ending may be in store.

This week, Animal Control Officer George Gonzales has been at school every morning, urging the turkeys to move down the street to follow other fowl pursuits. Game Warden Moerbe is gathering information about run-ins with the birds.

“If they’re presenting a hazard, we’ll try to trap and remove them,” said Moerbe. “When they get comfortable and don’t feel threatened by people, that’s when we have to worry about them being aggressive. Our primary concern is safety.”

It’s nice to think about them pacing through the cottonwoods in, say, Pinto Canyon, where they can gobble and peck and investigate all they want. But if they’re relocated, will they think of us? Will they talk turkey about the school children, the bikes, the dogs, the pecans at the courthouse? Will they be surprised at the life they’re supposed to lead?

Jack Copeland will miss them when and if they go.

“I do recognize that they can be a little threatening,” he said wistfully. “For us, though, it was just fun.”