Not a soccer mom

You may have heard of the “wild parrots of Telegraph Hill”. There’s even a movie been made about them. This flock of colorful birds can often be spotted in San Francisco and are very much part of the fabric of the city.

Well now we have our own avian wildlife in Berkeley. For the past few months we have been encountering on a fairly regular basis a group of wild turkeys who, it appears, have decided to take up residence in the Claremont neighborhood. (I’ve seen these birds, as well as deer and raccoons up in the hills, but not until now in the “flats”.)

There are five of them and they like to travel en masse. They are definitely not the top-heavy variety which are bred for the dinner table. These birds are both fit and fearless.

They cross busy streets, often in an orderly line, seemingly oblivious to the cars thundering around them. They explore people’s front gardens or decide to potter in the middle of the road. The other day my son had to be dispatched from the car to chase them onto the grass verge. And last week one hopped off a fence and landed in front of my car without so much as a glance in my direction.

We like having them around though. They may appear a little imperious but I admire their self-possession. The neighborhood has happily adopted them — they keep us entertained and remind us to drive a little slower.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 3rd, 2007 at 2:50 pm and is filed under Archives. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.