But when those guests turned out to be six distressed baby turkeys, the inn’s management rallied a rescue that united the talents of three municipal departments.
After about a two-hour operation, the chirpy sextet was plucked from the bottom of a storm drain and safely whisked to the Cumberland County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Inn guest Michael Mata of San Antonio, Texas, was in town for his son’s U.S. Coast Guard graduation. He thought something was amiss on Sunday when a turkey didn’t run off into the woods when his car traveled along Bluebird Lane.
Instead, the turkey remained curbside. Mata was intrigued and even pulled over to snap some pictures of the turkey, accompanied by one small baby, called a poult.
On Monday morning, Mata and his family were taking a stroll down the road through the wooded area behind the inn when they heard a commotion coming from the storm drain. When he peeked in, he saw the huddled mass of furry babes.
Turkeys are frequent visitors to the inn’s grounds, said Kevin Winter, the Fairfield Inn director of sales.
“They look at the guests and the guests look at them,” Winter said, noting the fowl have developed their own fan following and are even listed on a travel website.
But this was the first time, he said, the attraction had gone underground.
Public Works employee Chris Finch arrived to pop the storm drain grate and Animal Control Officer Anthony Cills jumped into the drain to grab four young ones while the two others ran into opposing pipes well beyond reach.
That required Finch to open two more manhole covers to give Cills access to more of the pipe.
They tried tapping on the pipe and even turkey calls from cellphone apps but the duo evaded capture.
Public works supervisor Michael Stevanus brought his turkey calling device to try to lure the poults toward the light of the drain opening.
Using a pitch fork, Finch gently nudged a soaking pile of leaves toward the opening and found a baby in the muck.
The sixth proved to be a feisty fugitive.
Millville Fire Department Engine 30 arrived on scene and gently flushed the poult toward the opening. They started with a booster line and worked up to a 1.5-inch hose to deliver the lone holdout into Finch’s hands.
Cills had hoped to reunited the poults with their mom but she was not visible at the site. So, he said, the SPCA will arrange for them to go to into wildlife rehabilitation.
The babes were about a week old and pretty cute.
If they weren’t illegal to own, Stevanus said he’d be tempted to take them home.
(Daily Journal - June 26, 2012)