Wild bird sightings on increase in county | Maryland Gazette (HometownGlenBurnie.com)

Wild turkeys have been seen gobbling away in Severna Park and Eastport in recent weeks. There's a rumor one was spotted on the Baltimore-Annapolis Trail in Arnold, too.

"At first I thought it was a buzzard, then I looked at it again and said, 'That's not a buzzard, that's a turkey,'" said Daniel Snyder, who watched a turkey hen mosey around his Eastport yard for half an hour last weekend.

While it may seem surprising to see turkeys in suburbia, it's not unheard of, said Peter Jayne of the state Department of Natural Resources.

Like deer, turkeys prefer to live in areas that have a mix of woods and more open areas, such as meadows or fields.

"It's not their preferred habitat and it's not where we'd like to see them, but we do occasionally see them in more developed areas," said Mr. Jayne, who is associate director for game management at DNR's Wildlife and Heritage Service.

So while that might explain the presence of turkeys in Severna Park and Arnold, the Eastport sighting still is a bit of a mystery, as the neighborhood is much more urbanized.

"Eastport, that's a real head-scratcher because there seems to be no logical habitat around there,"

Mr. Jayne said.

Today, there are wild turkey populations in every county in the state - although as far as anyone knows, there are none in Baltimore City, Mr. Jayne said.