Homer the turkey returns to take over intersection, local homeowners trot away
Jon Andreassi/Observer-Reporter
Homer chases a vehicle down Allison Hollow Road last week.
Jon Andreassi/Observer-Reporter
Homer the turkey stands in the middle of Allison Hollow Road last week.
They gave peace a chance, but one couple has given up trying to live with the wild turkey that roams a Chartiers Township intersection.
Once more, Homer the turkey has returned to the corner of Allison Hollow and McGovern roads. He certainly has his fans – a Facebook fan page has more than 1,400 followers – but these residents are not among them.
The husband and wife live near the intersection, and Homer’s antics have them packing their bags. They’re staying in Chartiers Township, but far away from Homer.
They have asked to remain anonymous for privacy.
“We did call the Game Commission. We tried to get rid of this turkey, and people made such a stink, because they don’t understand why people around here would hate this turkey. But he’s not (expletive) on their patio. He’s not pecking their car,” the woman said.
Homer roams the nearby yards, chases cars and slows down traffic through the busy intersection – even this couple will give him credit for that.
However, Homer’s commitment to his duties as an unofficial traffic controller is not enough to convince them not to move. In fairness to Homer, they also cited the heavy traffic and steps to their door as reasons for leaving.
“We have multiple reasons, but he is, believe me, part of that,” the woman said.
Through the years, people have often fed Homer, which is part of the reason he’s stuck around, but it is not totally normal behavior for a turkey.
“It’s unusual for a turkey during the winter, because they typically flock together during the winter for safety and to maximize their ability to find food,” said Mary Jo Casalena, a turkey biologist with the Pennsylvania Game Commission.
Because Homer managed to find both food and safety at the intersection, Casalena said he may consider his human neighbors to be his new flock.
Homer typically leaves for the spring and summer months, which Casalena says is mating season. She said it is possible that during Homer’s first year, he got separated from his flock.
“He found that neighborhood. It worked for him that year. He’s an exception to the rule. He’s been able to make it on his own. That’s one interesting thing about wildlife – they’re individuals,” Casalena said. “He didn’t read the book, apparently.”
Bill Sutton, another resident who lives near the intersection, is not as down on Homer’s presence.
“I don’t mind him. He’s been here forever,” Sutton said.
Sutton has seen the Game Commission make multiple attempts to remove Homer, but to no avail. On top of the efforts to peacefully remove him from his adopted home, Sutton says that Homer has been on the wrong end of the cars he’s usually blocking.
“He got hit last year,” Sutton said. “He came down a little while later, and he had one tail feather.”
Homer returned rejuvenated, with a fully feathered backside. The soon-to-be-ex-residents likened Homer to a cat with nine lives.
That’s also how Homer was described by Jocelyn Beresh, who runs the Homer the Allison Turkey Facebook page along with Jamie Goodwin.
Beresh, a Chartiers Township resident, puts herself in the pro-Homer column.
“I think he’s great. I just feel like he’s there to remind you to slow down and enjoy life,” Beresh said.
Beresh does not live at the intersection where Homer is, and is sympathetic to those who do live there and find Homer to be a nuisance.
“I feel like I’m on both sides of that thought process,” she said. “He found his way back to the intersection. Part of me feels like that’s where he wants to be. I do feel bad for the people who live there. I do worry about it not being a safe place for him, or him causing an accident.”
After Homer’s accident last year, Beresh and Goodwin put a notice on the Facebook page to not only remind people to stop feeding Homer and not to throw objects at him, but also not to let emotions run too high in the comments. They warned that any threatening comments toward the people who live near the intersection, or toward Homer, would be deleted.
The exiting couple feel as though some of Homer’s fans can be a bit overzealous.
“People say, ‘Oh, you moved in on his territory,'” the woman said. “That’s not true; (her husband) was born in this house. This turkey has moved in on our territory.”
Residents near the intersection say Homer has been coming for at least three or four years. Casalena said that’s exactly the typical life span for a Pennsylvania turkey, but that is largely because of predators, a problem Homer avoids at the intersection. She added that a turkey found at a bird feeder in the Pittsburgh area was 9 years old.
“So he might have five more years there,” Casalena said.