Madison, Wis., found this out the hard way when a roving band of bad birds went postal on the postal service, seattlepi.com reports.

"Just when you thought you'd heard it all," Mara Wilhite, manager of the Hilldale Station Post Office, said.

Wilhite said she expected to deal with some issues when she went to work for the U.S. Post Office -- bad weather, crazy people, the occasional angry dog, perhaps -- but foul-tempered fowl were not on her list.

Apparently a band of five to 10 of the delicious birds have been pecking at the postal workers as they do their thing every day. Some of the turkeys have even attacked the mailmen with sharp spurs on their legs.

The baddest bird of the bunch went so far as to climb in the door of a mail truck and whoop up on the driver, reverse-Thanksgiving style.

Wilhite sought help from regional wildlife program supervisor Eric Lobner, who told her the problem has to do with the birds and the bees, so to speak.

The aggressive behavior is tied to mating season, which Lobner said runs through the middle of May.

Lobner also suggested that perhaps the petulant pecking pests were attracted to the red on the mailmen's trucks.

The crew armed the mailmen with water pistols, but the bird remained undeterred in the face of an aqua assault.

Lobner said he plans to meet with Wilhite again to try to come up with an effective defense -- we suggest a fort or an anti-turkey tank ... or maybe just a couple of ovens and a baster or two.