Feathered fowl finds friends in Kemptville

Kemptville has a new local celebrity. Van Turken, as she has been dubbed, is a wild turkey that gets around town.

Sightings of the lone hen disrupting traffic on Van Buren Street have been popping up on social media for weeks, but things ramped up on January 31 when a poll was created on the Kemptville Community Bulletin Board to name the turkey. Mrs. Waddlebutts and Dinner lost out to Van Turken, in honour of her original stomping grounds. 

Since then, she has moved down the 43 corridor, visiting local businesses along the way. Van Turken is currently hanging out at the Kemptville Mall, dropping by Tim Hortons on a regular basis. 

There is even a Facebook group dedicated to sightings of Van Turken – Kemptville’s favourite turkey.  

Lisa Brownrigg, who created the page yesterday, says there are already around 350 members. She explained her daughter lives on Van Buren, so she had countless run-ins with the turkey prior to its newfound fame. Brownrigg noted posts about Van Turken were all over the place on social media, so she thought it would be nice to have a designated page to track her movements. 

Photos, videos and memes of Van Turken already litter the page, along with messages from members reminding people that it’s illegal to trap and relocate wild animals and its best to just leave them alone.