Animal officer, neighbors track turkey across Lynn

LYNN – She spent a few days in Theresa Richard?s Western Avenue yard before flying onto a neighbor?s roof and – if Keith Sheppard has his way – the female turkey he has tracked for three months will soon find a home in Pine Grove Cemetery, above ground.The animal control officer said the roughly year-old female turkey has slowly migrated from a General Electric-owned lot on Spencer Street he described as “something like a wildlife sanctuary” to the YMCA property on Neptune Boulevard and then over to Laighton Street a few blocks from Richard?s home.Along the way, Sheppard said he has received plenty of calls from Lynn residents reporting the turkey in their neighborhood.Richard, who has lived on Western Avenue since 1963, said she spotted the turkey roosting in a shallow hole next to her neighbor?s string bean plants on Monday. She said the bird initially frightened her before she concluded the turkey had lost its way.Sheppard speculated the turkey may be “the runt of a litter and a little slow.” That said, he said the turkey has no problem flying a couple hundred yards at a stretch and soaring up to rooftops.The turkey?s Washington Street perch left the bird within sight – and certainly flying range – of the cemetery with its underbrush and trees. Eight-year-old Ezekiel Newsome spotted the turkey in front of his Western Avenue home two days ago, and he hopes to see her flying over his house.?There?s a lot of wildlife behind us,” Newsome said.