Wyoming’s wild turkey season opened Sept. 1, but only for archery. Wyoming Game and Fish Department doesn’t offer a tag for tenderizing a turkey with a car windshield.
Clara Maslak and her family found that out the hard way on the afternoon of Sept. 23 while driving on U.S. Highway 14 from Powell to Cody. They were crossing the Corbett Bridge when a wild turkey decided to do the same.
“The Corbett Bridge is pretty famous for hitting deer,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “This time, we hit a turkey.”
Maslak heard her husband shout right before the bird impacted the windshield. They’d hit a 20-pound turkey that decided to lift off and fly across the highway right as the family’s Chevy Suburban zoomed by.
“There was glass in my face, and my husband got a few cuts on his hand, but nothing too bad,” she said. “He told me he saw the turkey but didn’t know it was going to fly right as we were coming in.”
The oblivious bird smashed into the driver’s side of the windshield, nearly caving it in. The Maslaks decided to return to Powell first, then drive their Suburban to Cody to replace the windshield.
“He had to put his head out of the window and drive like that,” she said about driving with the one side of the windshield unusable. “My side of the windshield just had some small cracks, so we could see a little, but not much. And then we made at home safely, thank goodness.”
Windshield Season
Zach Swope with Park County Glass in Cody had never seen that level of devastation caused by a turkey, but they replace windshields damaged by animal impacts all the time.
It’s windshield season in Wyoming.
“We’ve seen the entire driver’s side of a Subaru Forester taken out by a moose,” Swope said. “A car driving up Sunlight Road hits a free-range cow every now and again, and sometimes that only takes out the windshield.”
Fortunately for the Maslaks, Swope already had a replacement windshield for their Suburban. It cost $350 to replace it, a not-so-paltry sum for their poultry damage. That comes out to a steep $17.50 per pound of tenderized turkey.
“They’re lucky the windshield didn't collapse in,” he said.
Despite their smaller size and being comparatively lightweight, birds are notorious for wiping out windshields. Not even the Cowboy State’s city dwellers are safe from poultry projectiles.
“We deal with a fair number of vehicle-turkey impacts, mostly in urban settings such as Casper, near creeks or rivers during the winter, or on highways that snake through the Black Hills,” said Brandon Werner, a wildlife biologist with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department in Casper. “The average adult female hen weighs up to 12 pounds. The average adult male tom or gobbler can tip the scales at 20-22 pounds.”
That’s more than enough weight to severely damage a vehicle, especially one traveling 70 mph. Werner said he’s unaware of any fatal accidents caused by turkeys but believes it’s possible.
“With some collisions I have seen, the turkeys tried to fly at the last second but only got a few feet off the ground before the car hit it,” he said. “When this happens, the car and the turkey are at the same height, and it can come through the windshield, which can cause bodily injury.”
Given where the turkey impacted this vehicle, this scenario likely happened on the Corbett Bridge. Luckily, windshields are designed to take this kind of impact.
Layers Of Protection
Windshields are more than large pieces of glass. Swope explained that when the turkey slammed into this driver’s windshield, the pane of glass “did its job,” taking the brunt of the impact without collapsing or shattering.
“Windshields are laminated,” he said. “They have an outer layer and an inner layer. That lamination keeps the glass together and prevents it from going all over the driver. That windshield did its job and didn’t collapse.”
It was remarkable that the driver could get the truck from the bridge to Park County Glass, given the state of the smashed windshield. Swope doesn’t recommend driving after that incurring that kind of damage.
“If it obstructs the driver’s view at all, you should probably pull off the highway as safely as you can and call a towing company to tow your vehicle,” he said, “especially if that inner layer is broken at all.”
Corridor Crossings
Wyoming’s turkeys are everywhere and can go anywhere. Werner said that turkeys, like most of Wyoming’s wildlife, are known to travel across the state at certain times of year.
“Turkeys do migrate quite often in Wyoming,” he said. “Typically, wild turkeys winter in lower country such as river or creek bottoms and agricultural fields. In the spring, some wild turkeys migrate from lower country into timbered hills and mountains to mate and nest. Some birds spend the summer at higher elevations and then migrate down in the fall.”
That also means there are certain times of year when there is a higher possibility of turkey-vehicle incidents. Werner cautioned drivers to be aware of roadside turkeys around this time of year.
“Turkeys are more prone to be hit in the fall and spring when migrating and breeding,” he said. “They are the most likely to be hit in early summer after they hatch poults as they have difficulty quickly getting out of the way of traffic and are hard to see.”
Fortunately, Werner said that windshield impacts are comparatively rare. While turkeys can fly, they tend to take the low road rather than the high one.
“Most of the time, turkeys are hit as they are standing or running and go under the vehicle,” he said.
Thanksgiving?
Clara Maslak and her husband are out $350, but are thankful that it wasn’t worse. But could they collect that turkey as a consolation prize?
Many Wyomingites would love to prepare a wild Wyoming turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, and many are probably planning or already out hunting for one.
One tenderized at 70 mph might not make for good cooking, but Werner said the driver could have collected the windshield-wiped turkey, no paperwork required.
“People do not need to report if they hit a turkey unless it is still alive,” he said. “Wyoming's roadkill law applies to wild turkeys, but does not apply to other species such as grouse or pheasants.”
Wyomingites only need a $21.50 conservation stamp and a $16 fall turkey tag to get their Wyoming wild turkey, while a 20-pound Butterball could cost around $50 this Thanksgiving.
Maslak said they didn’t collect the turkey, but she was certain it didn’t survive the incident.
“We just had feathers in the car in the window,” she said. “That’s all we took.”
Compared to a $350 windshield replacement and a near-death experience, you’re probably better off with a bow and arrow or a Butterball.
A Sound Sleeper
Maslak said the turkey incident was a shocking and harrowing ordeal. But she was most concerned about her 2-year-old daughter in a booster seat at the center of the Suburban’s back row.
“She usually sits in the middle of the back seat because they have the hooks for the car seat,” she said. “I thought probably that should be safer. But after that turkey hitting the window, I don't even know if this is completely safe to have her in the middle anymore.”
Maslak’s daughter was sound asleep when they hit the turkey. Despite the noise and force of the impact, she stayed sound asleep until after they got her home and cleaned all the glass off her face.
“She was covered with glass but unhurt,” she said. “We managed to get home quickly to get all that glass off her, because we didn't want her rubbing her hands on her face and getting some of that glass on her eyes. That was a blessing.”
WKRP
If the well-known episode on WKRP in Cincinnati is your reference point as to whether turkeys can fly or not, here's some background.
Yes, they can, as long as they are wild turkeys.
Wild turkeys can fly short distances and pretty quickly too -- up to 60 miles per hour.
Domesticated turkeys -- the kind that station manager Arthur Carlson dropped over the Pinedale shopping mall in the popular 1970s sitcom episode -- cannot.
So when Mr. Carlson said, "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly," he was actually correct. He just used the wrong type of bird.
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
