As we head into the Thanksgiving week, a special visitor decided to make an appearance in the Montclair Hills.  According to eyewitness Rhona Lashinsky, this visitor caused quite a ruckus for everyone who encountered him… read on.

Eyewitness:  Rhona Lashinsky, Shepherd Canyon, November 23, 2008

I was driving down Shepherd Canyon around 9:45 this morning.  Just past the fire station, I approached a long line of cars that were stopped in the roadway.  Clearly, something was amiss.  Up ahead, I could see that a woman had exited her car and was wildly flailing her arms in all directions, apparently engaged in some kind of dispute.

Great.  It’s bad enough the sanctity of our homes has been threatened, and now we can’t even drive to the Village without being confronted with some type of drama.  Then the woman got back in her car, but we still weren’t moving.  Obviously, this confrontation wasn’t over yet.  Probably some obstinate, low-life creep causing a problem for everyone.

I could feel myself going into alert mode.  As the cars inched forward, I reminded myself to be observant – in the best tradition of an MSIC community member – in case law enforcement needed my eyewitness account.

Finally – finally!!  I was able to get an unobstructed view of the culprit: a giant, 4 ft tall wild turkey, squawking loudly and strutting around right in the middle of the lane!

If you tried to go around it by swerving into the opposing lane, it scurried over to the driver’s side of your car.  If you then tried to move forward, it lunged again to the front of your car.  It took each car easily 2 minutes to make its way past the bird.

We do see wild turkeys around here, which are rather small in stature and travel in groups.  This four-foot loner sounds like he was sent by the Turkey Deity, telling us to watch out this week.