By Anam Baig
A wild turkey has recently been hanging out at the intersection of Victory Boulevard and Clove Road in Staten Island.
Dubbed Bernice by the locals (who refer to her as a female although it’s a male), the turkey has become a common sight, a companion to those waiting for the s62 and s61 buses that lead to the Staten Island Ferry.
“She’s tame and complacent, a very elegant but simple creature, definitely a Bernice,” remarks Michael Cuttita, a commuter waiting for the bus.
Another Staten Islander, Paul Costello, recalls: “I first saw the turkey around the beginning of November. It was like 7 in the morning and I was waiting for the bus. I was mind-boggled, you know? What is this thing doing at the bus stop? Is it an escaped turkey? I just took a picture of it and shook my head.”
Heavy traffic flows through the intersection each morning, which is surrounded by five bus stops. From 6 to 8 a.m., almost 10 different MTA buses are moving along the street, along with hundreds of cars heading for the ferry, the mall, Brooklyn or the West Brighton neighborhood.
Weaving among this congestion is Bernice, a full-sized wild turkey whose plumage is usually erect as se crosses the street or approaches people. Oddly, he tends to loiter in front of Indian Clove, a local restaurant with a Lunch Special sign posted up by the door.
“She reminds me of Thanksgiving,” says Dustin Felice, a 9-year-old student waiting for the bus with his mother. “I want to have her as a pet!”
A sentiment not shared by business owners around the Clove Lakes area, who say the entrances to their shops are littered with turkey droppings.
“This is gross! It poops all over the place!” says Shen Ling, who works at the nail salon where Bernice frequently leaves little presents. Ling, who opens the salon at 11 a.m., has to sweep up the mess every morning before customers arrive, and says she comes out of the salon throughout the day to shoo Bernice away from the front entrance.
But Bernice is just one turkey.
Recent reports by the state Department of Environmental Conservation have shown that the population of wild turkeys is increasing in Staten Island and is now more than 100, just in the eastern shore area of South Beach and Dongan Hills, more than three miles from Bernice’s spot on Clove Road. These gobblers are becoming a homeowner’s nightmare: they travel in gangs, make odd screeching noises during the wee hours and peck at plants and crap up yards. Some have been found nesting in trees and on rooftops. And many of them saunter out into traffic and end up under the wheels of a passing vehicle.
Sometimes Bernice wants to cross the street himself, perhaps to some appealing bags of garbage by the s53 bus stop.
“This is definitely some sort of traffic violation, maybe even a health hazard,” says Joleen McCully as she watches Bernice cross the street during a Don’t Walk signal. Cars screech to a halt and horns blare while Bernice slowly struts across the street, blissfully unaware of the commotion.
The Department of Environmental Conservation is attempting to determine how the community feels about the turkeys’ presence, sending a survey to approximately 700 residents. Questions range from how they would feel about slaughtering the birds and donating the meat to local food banks to whether they are nice to look at.
From far away, Bernice looks like an awkward peacock, but up close, the beauty of a wild turkey is almost startling. Iridescent feathers of blue, green, and purple race along its back, leading to a fanned tail of browns and whites, which is a pleasantly distracting sight from its wrinkly bald head.
But even this subtle splendor is not enough to take away Curtis High School student Skye Wright’s disdain.
“I think this turkey needs to be taken out of here,” she says. “It freaks me out when I’m trying to read or listen to my iPod. It just bobs its gross head toward me and stares at me, like it wants to eat me. I’m supposed to be on that side of the dinner plate.”