Turnpike turkey transfixes New York/New Jersey

The media have been calling her Tammy the Turnpike Turkey. She made the Jersey City/Liberty Park Exit 14B toll plaza of the New Jersey Turnpike her home for months through noon today, defying several attempts over a couple of weeks by Turnpike staff and state wildlife people to move her out. The turkey hung around the toll booths, walked the lanes, scurried out of the way of approaching vehicles, pottered around the grass at the side of the toll admin buildings.

Once she even alighted on the roof of a toll collector's car in the plaza carpark, causing them to put traffic cones on car roofs to keep her away.

But she never ever took up residence in a toll booth as reported by the AP and several other over-imaginative reporters.

She was smart enough to know if she'd done that the plaza superintendent would have handed her a money tray and made her work a shift. Besides, it's said, toll collectors snacks aren't up to her standard.

A toll collector at the plaza said the turkey "walks around the lanes as if she owns the place." But he said she "doesn't bother anybody."

Brian Donohue of the Star Ledger of Newark NJ reported: "Tammy, is, well, a bit different. Not your average turkey. For one, there's her decision to spend most days hanging around the toll booths. And then, perhaps as a result of spending so much time around people and traffic, there's her relative friendliness. She lets you get pretty close.

"Tammy-watching, though, is no warm and fuzzy affair. It's a nail-biting experience, given her propensity to walk right into the busy roadway on her way to or from her evening roost on the Liberty State Park side of the off ramp. It's like watching a real life version of the old video game Frogger. Something tells me this story is not going to end well. I hope I'm wrong. In the meantime, keep an eye out for Tammy when you're getting on or off the turkeypike in JC (Jersey City). And please, drive slowly."

see video http://www.nj.com/ledgerlive/index.ssf/2009/11/the_new_jersey_turnpike_turkey.html

Donohue even quoted Benjamin Franklin who wrote in a letter to his daughter that the turkey would have been a better symbol for America than the eagle: "though a little vain & silly, (the turkey is) a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on."

Turnpike spokesman Joe Orlando said Tammy decided to make the Turnpike in Jersey City her home: "She didn't want to leave, she was a regular, and to be honest with you, she probably had better attendance than a lot of the employees."

The bird was successfully netted around noon Wednesday and taken to a local zoo.

Exit 14B is just the second last exit on the Turnpike's spur to the Holland Tunnel and where you get off if you want to see the Statue of Liberty, or the gritty streets of Jersey City.

TOLLROADSnews 2009-11-17