Flying Garbage disposals.

[David LaPell]

The other morning I noticed several large shadows flying overhead, the tell tale sign of a turkey vulture. I was able to get fairly close, and at one time I counted six in the trees and four in the air, so I assume they were performing clean up duty. They're not the most attractive bird, but they perform a pretty necessary function.

 

[AJGUNNER]

I have been told they sit like that with the wings out for 2 reasons. First is to cool off when it is really hot out and they have no breeze to coast around on. The second is to air out the stench after finishing off a skunk or a batch of roadkill that was slightly past it's expiration date.

As far as doing their duty, I am sure glad to have them around to clean up anything around here that "goes over the fence". This might include trapped critter carcasses or even local ditch cougars, or table scraps.

 

[Doc Holliday]

Natural Recycling.

Great pics.

 

[Stan in SC]

I have had them on my land before stand out in the open and spread their wings and turn a little at a time.It is very interesting to watch.I also was told that they perform two tasks when doing this.They cool off and "air out".

Stan in SC

 

[pete44ru]

.

When I was visiting a friend in SW Florida several years ago, we were watching a flock of a dozen or so following the sanitation trucks around the neighborhood on garbage day.

The scene reminded me of an old Alfred Hitchcock movie (The Birds).


.

 

[Selena]

Here I thought this would be a thread about Democrats getting discounts on airlines. I'm glad to see it's something interesting instead. Vultures are nature's way of proving she is conservative and hates waste.

 

[314Chevy]

Wow! Thanks for the pics.

 

[sheepdawg]

They seem to follow me. :shock:

 

[Sturgis270]

Mother Nature's clean-up crew. A really under appreciated bird!

 

[Mega Twin]

Ugly as they may be up close,they are definitely masters of the sky in flight.

 

[eveled]

I've always been fascinated by what animals can eat without getting sick. Conversely, how little bacteria it takes to get us sick. Don't buzzards get samonella? Preppers and survivalists the world over would love to have the buzzards digestive tract.

I've never seen a buzzard in person. I live in the Northeast.

 

[David LaPell]

I've always been fascinated by what animals can eat without getting sick. Conversely, how little bacteria it takes to get us sick. Don't buzzards get samonella? Preppers and survivalists the world over would love to have the buzzards digestive tract.

I've never seen a buzzard in person. I live in the Northeast.

So do I, these things heavily populate the Adirondack Mountains here in NY.

 

[GunnyGene]

See 'em every day here. They'll clean up a road kill deer in a couple days. And there's always armadillos, 'coons, or some other critter to snack on.

 

[Fox Mike]

They are interesting to watch. The wife and I were headed to town not too long ago and saw 6 of them perched on a light pole arm.

I've never seen a buzzard in person. I live in the Northeast.

Of course there is also the one that I posted about a couple weeks ago. I got to see him/her REAL close as it moved the hat on my head as it zoomed by.

 

[toysoldier]

Crows used to compete with the vultures for road kill, but after West Nile virus went through a few years ago, crows are few and far between.

 

[Colonialgirl]

See 'em every day here. They'll clean up a road kill deer in a couple days. And there's always armadillos, 'coons, or some other critter to snack on.

Same here on the road that runs from Zephyrhills into Tampa passing through state/county property that is NO Hunting but loaded with deer and wild pigs, not to mention armadillos, coons and rabbits along with the occasional squirrel.
See them birds sitting on the top of telephone poles waiting for the next meal !

 

[kmoore]

I have them around in groups this time of year. Anyone else had the pleasant opportunity to handle one. Several times for me and they smell like most think they would. Another use for foam ear plugs, they fit in a human nose well.

 

[rman]

We have a lot of them around where I live. There acres of wooded ground between my house and the lake that belongs to the Army Corps of Engineers. They frequent the skies over the woods a lot. They are nasty looking ole birds, but sure are graceful fliers. We also have bald eagles around here, and sometimes I have to look twice to see which is which.

 

[Rick Courtright]

Hi,

There's a telephone/electric line not far from my sister's kitchen, and for a number of years, she's been greeted by several of those "gorgeous creatures" sitting on the line with their wings spread out every morning. Kinda creeped her out for a while. Somebody finally told her they do that to dry out their feathers from the night's moisture so they can fly better. Dunno if that's the whole story, but cormorants do the same thing after they've been diving, so it kinda makes sense.

Now she just hollers out, "I'm not dead YET!" in her best Monty Python imitation when she lets the dog out and has her coffee in peace.

Rick C

 

[roarindan51]

I saw 15 -18 down in Warrensburgh this past May.

 

[caryc]

I don't see many buzzards around my place. If I do they are usually high in the sky. What really surprised me is that three days after viewing your post I was sitting in my living room and out the window I saw this guy land on the big rock. Then he proceeded to spread his wings just like in your picture. I had never seen that until I saw your pictures. The rock is about 40 or 50 feet outside my window so I used the zoom on the camera. He only spread his wings for about 3 minutes then sat their another two minutes then took off.

 

[Wyandot Jim]

I worked in a high rise BP Oil building on the 12th floor at one time. This building had big windows with 3' ledges at floor level to help shade the office below. Well in the winter mostly it seemed like all the Buzzards in Texas would stay on those ledges. They were pretty cool to watch. They were only 1'-2' from me. They would take off go fly and soar for awhile then come back and land. There was a lot of open land close by.
The problem was that they would eat the caulking from around the windows and they would leak. Eventually they removed all the sun shades to eliminate the Buzzards.
Now this is a lot off Buzzards that are a PEST at my office.
When they removed the shades they went to the ground.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxmFLDyLAaU


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi-pAvYiD6Q

 

[caryc]

I have been told they sit like that with the wings out for 2 reasons. First is to cool off when it is really hot out and they have no breeze to coast around on. The second is to air out the stench after finishing off a skunk or a batch of roadkill that was slightly past it's expiration date.

As far as doing their duty, I am sure glad to have them around to clean up anything around here that "goes over the fence". This might include trapped critter carcasses or even local ditch cougars, or table scraps.

What's a ditch cougar? Never heard that one before.