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November 26, 2008

Closing Bell: Prospect Park's Wild Turkey

Okay, all you amateur ornithologists out there: is this a real wild turkey, resting on a branch near the Prospect Park lake? Might be a good place to look for dinner if the stores run low (although the photo's from spring). Have a good Thanksgiving.
Photo by kmf221.

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Comments

Doesn't look like the wild turkey where I'm from...

Posted by: Argyle Road at November 26, 2008 4:15 PM

Happy Thanksgiving, Brownstoners!

Posted by: bayridgegirl at November 26, 2008 4:16 PM

If you like duck for dinner, this bird is for you!

There are a lot of wild turkeys in the Northeast. I've never seen one in Brooklyn though. We have seen pheasants though...and there are the green parrots.

Posted by: BrooklynGreene at November 26, 2008 4:21 PM

That doesn't look anything like a turkey.

Posted by: dannyhellman at November 26, 2008 4:41 PM

you townies need to take some day hikes

Posted by: dittoburg at November 26, 2008 4:43 PM

duck

Posted by: lalaland at November 26, 2008 4:58 PM

Geez, Lisa...are you joking?

Nice photo, though.

Posted by: Prodigal_Son at November 26, 2008 5:03 PM

You're kidding, right?

Driving up to the farm in Vermont in a couple of hours. Plenty of wild turkeys up there (and a nice fat farm-raised turkey for dinner tomorrow).

Happy holidays everyone.

Posted by: lechacal at November 26, 2008 5:07 PM

Wild turkeys like the ecotone where woods meet grassland. The edge of the Long Meadow in Prospect Park might almost qualify (if the parkies let the grass grow) but wild turkeys also like areas sparsely populated by humans. It would be one clumsy turkey that found itself out on a tree branch in a lake.

This bird is so obviously not a turkey, I cannot help feeling like Lisa just made a holiday sight-gag at the expense of the seven (so far) of us who responded.

Posted by: altervoce at November 26, 2008 5:07 PM

What you got there is a juvenile Wild Turducken, before it matures and grows its outer Turkey layer.

Posted by: RaginCajun at November 26, 2008 5:11 PM

Saw a turkey in Battery Park on Monday.

Posted by: wagongrrl at November 26, 2008 6:24 PM

there are wild turkeys in brooklyn. i have seen them in greenwood cemetery. this of course is not a turkey. it looks more like a gull. although it is funny to think of a turkey pretending to be a gull the day before thanksgiving.

Posted by: Inigo at November 26, 2008 6:25 PM

Saw a turkey in Battery Park on Monday.

Posted by: wagongrrl at November 26, 2008 6:31 PM

Definitely a seagull. I've seen plenty of wild turkeys and ringneck pheasants, and a few deer, in the Bronx. And coyotes in Westchester. Brooklyn is pretty weak when it comes to wildlife. The biggest wild animals I've seen around here are possums and raccoons.

Posted by: Sparafucile at November 26, 2008 7:16 PM

That is a duck or eider, definitely NOT a seagull.

Posted by: mshook at November 26, 2008 7:31 PM

an eider is a fancy word for a goose. this is not a duck or a goose, c'mon. it is a gull, don't make me get my "birds of north america" to tell you specifically what type of gull. this guy probably lives in red hook and flies to the park now and then for a little r and r.

Posted by: Inigo at November 26, 2008 7:41 PM

Yall sure are city slickers. Muscovy duck. http://images.google.com/images?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGLR_en___US234&q=muscovy+duck&um=1&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title

Posted by: RaginCajun at November 26, 2008 8:00 PM

Look at the shape of the bill, Inigo. That is no gull. Fancy word or no fancy word. And the eider I am familiar with are not geese, and they frequent Cape Cod bay. I am also too lazy to go get my bird book, but just look at the upturned bill and save yourself the trouble.

Posted by: mshook at November 26, 2008 8:04 PM

"The common eider is a large sea-duck". Don't you think the bill on the muscovy duck looks too short to be this one, RaginCajun?

Posted by: mshook at November 26, 2008 8:08 PM

Don't know. Guess I'm just remembering the white-head and ugly red face. Hadn't looked at the bill and don't know sea-ducks all that well.

Posted by: RaginCajun at November 26, 2008 8:10 PM

muscovy duck? in the US?

Maybe in a rent-control apartment in Brooklyn Heights but not in Prospect Park.

Posted by: Inigo at November 26, 2008 8:12 PM

bah, who cares. I just want to see a bunch of locovores with guns out there hunting it.

Posted by: Heather at November 26, 2008 9:18 PM

Turducken is so 2007. We're having Ostritureagle this year.

Posted by: poshlust at November 27, 2008 12:19 AM

Who thought that was a turkey? I have seen turkeys while golfing in NYC (Van Courtland Park, Bronx) so I know that is not one. Happy Thanksgiving to everybody.

Posted by: wasder at November 27, 2008 8:41 AM

Happy Thanksgiving to all. If that's a turkey then so am I!!!! LOL

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at November 27, 2008 10:33 AM

Happy Thanksgiving to all! :)
Looks like a duck to me...

Posted by: bren at November 27, 2008 10:58 AM

Cow

Posted by: troll at November 28, 2008 10:42 AM

A turkey sitting on a branch in middle of the lake?
C'mon - don't even have to look at the bird to know it isn't a turkey.

Posted by: Petebklyn at November 28, 2008 11:53 AM

That's clearly an Egret. Seen tons of them in NYC parks over the years and even flying over the Gowanus Canal.

Posted by: Jack at November 29, 2008 12:13 AM

I have no egrets.