SPOKANE, Wash. — They eat your lawn (and poop on it, too). They terrorize your streets. They bring your car to a dead stop during your commute to work.
They are the South Hill turkeys and they have most likely taken over your neighborhood.
The turkeys seem to be everywhere you turn this fall.
While some residents are angry to see a resurgence in the turkey population, hunting is not allowed within the urban areas of Spokane.
The fall hunting season has begun in the more rural areas and will run through the end of the year December 31. The state Department of Fish and Wildlife is taking steps control the population within the urban confines of the city.
Kile Westerman, a wildlife conflict specialist with Fish and Wildlife, says people began trying to establish wild turkeys in Washington state in the early 1900s. It wasn't until the 1960s that they began trapping wild turkeys in other states.
In the 1980s, people began to aggressively try to start the populations, Westerman said. But the turkeys in Spokane County likely just migrated to the area from populations started in other counties.
Westerman said there is no formal survey of turkeys in the county, as they are very elusive and range across a wide variety of habitats.
The bad news for some? Westerman says the turkey population is definitely increasing in Spokane County, which means we'll have to keep looking into those beady eyes as the birds wander onto our properties.