To our great surprise, we crossed paths with a wild turkey yesterday on Spectacle Island. We knew turkeys weren’t strong fliers, so how does one get to the Boston Harbor Islands?
Turkeys have also been reported this year on Peddock’s Island (a flock of four) and on Thompson’s Island (a flock of ten). Peddock’s is less than 0.3 miles from Hull and Thompson’s is a little over 0.3 miles from Quincy.
According to North American Wildlife by Marshall Cavendish, wild turkeys can stay airborne for a quarter of a mile with the longest recorded flight at one mile.
So maybe the turkeys flew. A turkey on Thompson Island could then fly the 0.6 miles to Spectacle.
But, there’s another possibility. Did you know that turkeys can swim? According to an article in the Bangor Daily News, a wild turkey was spotted swimming from an island off Maine to the mainland. Maybe Boston’s turkeys have taken to the water as well.