Wildlife in New Jersey is going wild this spring

If you live in suburban New Jersey, you may have noticed more wildlife than you may have been used to. Habitat for wildlife is shrinking in our state, although at a much slower pace than in the past. Also, these animals have no natural predators around much.

One main group of predators is humans, if they hunt. There are fewer and fewer hunters in our ranks as the main population of sportsmen and women ages out. Hunting is not as popular among young people as it was a generation or two ago.

Deer, Canada geese and wild turkeys seem to be everywhere. Yes, turkeys. There are a couple of the dozen or so that graze in my backyard every day for the last month. You may remember about a year and a half ago they were terrorizing residents in the Holiday City community in Toms River. Some became so aggressive that people were afraid to get out of their cars and go into their house for fear of being attacked by the gobblers.

Last week as my friend was driving his son to baseball practice one decided to run out into a suburban street. When the turkey realized that something big and fast, my friend's pick-up truck, was getting close, the turkey decided to take flight. Yes, they can fly, not that high and not too far, but they are capable. Not capable enough, apparently. My friend's pick-up hit the bird before he could come to a complete abrupt stop. He couldn't get the turkey untangled from his front grill, so he continued driving to his son's friend's house to pick up the kid to take him to practice.

He used some garden tools from the neighbor's garage to untangle the dead bird from his vehicle. It was gruesome as you can see and not what a busy dad needs with his kid in the car. The boys made it to practice on time, the bird however did not meet his future obligations or plans.

Be careful driving through the lovely suburbs of New Jersey. The kids are out playing and the wildlife has not idea what's happening out there.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Dennis Malloy. Any opinions expressed are Dennis Malloy's own.