"Wild" Turkey update

The turkeys are still roaming the neighborhood. They paused in their strolling in the shade of our side yard, so I took some pictures out of our kitchen window. One of the young un's is a Tom, and has started to gobble. A wild turkey is about 10% majestic and 90% ridiculous. An adolescent turkey learning to gobble but sounding like a teenager with his voice breaking pushes this to about 98% ridiculous.

These birds are making me wonder where people draw the line between charming urban denizen and bloody annoyance. Squirrels are cute and nobody minds them. Rats are about the same size, but utterly detested (both carry plague, so that's not the explanation). Urban raccoons and possums are tolerated but not loved, and skunks are definitely animalia non grata. Birds pretty much get a free pass. It doesn't seem to matter whether they are predators or herbivores, hummingbird sized or ravens, the only bird I've seen people get bothered by is pigeons. But these turkeys may be different. They are much higher impact than other birds--they're big, they're not cute, they can rip up a garden, and terrorize pets. The other day they almost caused an accident as they decided to linger in the middle of the street in front of the elementary school during the height of kiddie-drop-off-by-frenzied-parent-on-the-way-to-work hour. So I wonder how the neighborhood will deal with a flock of these guys prowling around.