DE PERE, Wis. (WFRV) – What started as a strange noise outside a basement window turned into a yearlong bond between a Wisconsin mother and a wild turkey.
“I thought maybe an animal had gotten trapped,” De Pere resident Vicki said.
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Instead, she found a full-grown wild turkey sitting on a nest of eggs.
“I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” Vicki said. “She started to move around a little bit and then I noticed that she was sitting on a bunch of eggs and I thought, ‘This is where you’re going to nest.’”
The turkey, later named “Stella” by Vicki’s daughter, had somehow navigated through a city neighborhood and chosen the narrow basement window well as the place to raise her family.
“There are a lot of turkeys,” Vicki said. “But to have a wild turkey navigate through all these homes, because I’m in the city, and find this egress window was just incredible to me.”
Vicki, a nurse and mother, immediately went into research mode.
“I’m a nurse by profession, but I don’t raise turkeys,” Vicki said.
After speaking with wildlife experts and researching wild turkey behavior, she learned Stella would likely stay on the nest for nearly a month straight.
“That was shocking to me,” she said. “She stayed sitting there day after day, week after week. It was incredible.”
Due to the unusual nesting setup below ground level, Vicki decided to help while still respecting the wild animal’s space.
“I thought about her as a mom trying to manage her nest,” Vicki said.
She brought Stella food and water. During hot days, she created shade and misted the turkey with water to help keep her cool. Over time, the relationship between the two grew.
“It was like a mom-to-a-mom kind of connection,” Vicki said.
Eventually, Stella became part of the family’s daily life.
“She expected that I would come there in the morning and feed her,” Vicki said. “And after the babies were hatched, I had 10 little poults running around that became somewhat dependent on me as well.”
Vicki even researched ways to calm the young birds while they were trapped inside the egress window learning to survive.
The answer surprised her: classical music.
“Believe it or not, classical music is what turkeys tend to like,” she said. “So I started playing classical music for them. They really enjoyed that. It really calmed them.”
At times, Vicki said Stella even appeared to sing along.
“I actually heard Stella singing,” she said. “So I knew it was the right intervention.”
As the poults grew, another challenge emerged: teaching them how to escape the window well and fly.
Using tree branches placed inside the egress window, Vicki created a makeshift training ground.
“One by one they would follow each other,” she said. “Until one day I actually witnessed them fly.”
Eventually, Stella and her babies left for good — or so Vicki thought.
“We drove around one day and found her with other turkeys,” she said. “I opened the car door and said, ‘Stella, Stella,’ and she turned around and looked at me.”
Then, weeks ago, something happened Vicki still struggles to explain.
She looked out her front window and saw Stella standing in the yard again.
“It was just like she had never left,” Vicki said.
The turkey walked directly back toward the same egress window where she raised her first brood.
“I couldn’t believe this was starting all over again,” she said.
Now Stella is laying another clutch of eggs, beginning what Vicki calls “Stella Story Part Two.”
Wildlife experts say turkeys can remember locations and return to places where they feel safe. For Vicki, Stella’s return feels deeply personal.
“It’s actually very complimentary that she’s returned,” she said. “Because they only go back where they feel it’s been a good experience.”
The experience also reminded Vicki of her own motherhood journey, especially raising her daughter, who has autism.
“Her instinct as a mom really resonated with me,” Vicki said. “It’s what parents do for their children.”
Vicki said music became another unexpected connection between her daughter and the turkey family.
“My daughter loves music,” she said. “The fact that music calms her, and it helped Stella too, it just connected everything.”
What began as an unusual wildlife encounter has since become a lesson about connection, compassion and motherhood.
“We get up every day and do what we need to do for the people we love,” Vicki said. “We’re not all that different.”
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And if Stella returns again next year?
“Book number three,” Vicki said. “Possibly.”
