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Freeze, turkey! Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Lisa Michaelsen, visiting from Lockport, N.Y., helps keep a wild turkey from running into traffic next to the Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater in downtown Medford on Monday. Police finally catch up with a wandering bird after two days of sightings and phone calls By MEG LANDERS Mail Tribune Sometimes police work is for the birds. Just ask Medford police officer Tim McCartney. "I've probably caught a lot of turkeys, but none with feathers," he said. For two days until McCartney bagged it, patrol officers responded to more than a dozen emergency calls reporting sightings of a wild turkey in Medford. The elusive female Rio Grande startled passersby along Stewart Avenue near Columbus on Sunday and along Riverside Avenue downtown on Monday. The hen paused for a reflective moment beside a large window outside the Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater on Monday afternoon. Sven Nelaimischkies of Gold Hill was strolling down the street with his wife and sister-in-law when he spotted the bird. "I though it was a prop for the theater," he said. "Then it moved." He said the turkey was standing calmly beside the window on the alley side, pecking and clucking at her reflection. "It was just so docile," said Nelaimischkies, who worked for two years at a wildlife rehabilitation center in New York. Jim Burke, house manager of the Craterian, was in the building when he noticed several people gathered around, so he went outside to see what the attraction was. "It didn't seem injured but it didn't seem to mind people," he said. Burke put traffic cones in the alley and called 911. He learned that after being led on a wild goose chase, officers had decided to let the bird fend for herself. Burke said he was at a loss. Then he saw a patrol car. "I was just patrolling and he flagged me over," said McCartney. The officer grabbed a blanket from his trunk and approached the lost bird. Needless to say, the suspect resisted arrest. Turkeys have strong feet and sharp nails, but McCartney didn't get the stuffing knocked out of him. With the help of several passersby, McCartney subdued the turkey and wrapped her in the blanket. He carried her to his patrol car, and, of course, buckled in his fowl bundle. "I took the turkey to Prescott Park. It flew off into the side of the hill and walked into the brush," he said, adding that in his 17 years on the force, he's never captured a turkey. Mark Vargas, a wildlife biologist with Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, said he's not sure why the turkey crossed the road, but she could have been drawn into town by food. Turkeys were introduced in Oregon in the 1970s, he said, and prefer to live in low-level, mixed oak-conifer forests. They eat insects, seeds, and vegetation and mostly get around by walking. "They're short-burst fliers. They're like a big quail," he said. Officer McCartney did the right thing, Vargas said. "We would have recommended people leave it alone," he said. "Usually when you try to catch wildlife you kill it." While the whole incident may have ruffled her feathers - she lost a few - she probably landed on her feet. "If a predator doesn't get it," said Vargas, "it'll probably join up with another flock." Reach reporter Meg Landers at 776-4481 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.