Many communities across Massachusetts have been seeing a significant increase in their wild turkey populations. This could be due to a number of reasons, from a more favorable climate to a lack of predators. 

Abington High School has become an epicenter for a lot of the wildlife in town. At any given time of the day, you can drive through the boulevard (Gliniewicz Way) and encounter a number of different wildlife species, especially turkeys. 

For the last few months there has been a large group of about a dozen turkeys who have made Abington High School their home. Around the beginning of this summer, as some students were coming down to the high school to use the turf fields, a large group of turkeys were seen accompanied by their babies. Senior Brendon Grafton, who saw them in late summer, said, “The babies were very small and often hid in the back of the group.” Over the following few weeks, the chicks progressively grew larger and now appear fully grown.  

As cute as these feathered visitors may look, it is not all fun and games. This species can be very aggressive towards humans who may be around them, especially when they are protecting their young. While Abington’s turkeys may be more accustomed to people since they spend the majority of their time at a busy school, you never know how a wild animal could react.  

Turkeys sometimes become immovable objects in the middle of the road. Or large groups of turkeys dart out in front of cars on the boulevard. Grafton said, “I’ve never seen so many turkeys in the street at one time, and they are always there.”

Although seen as a potential obstruction of traffic, these turkeys may be “stuffing” the boulevard to ring in the Thanksgiving season.