I’ll bet you’re all hoping to see useful and/or happy information but the topic for this third day of 2013 is . . vultures! Around here there are turkey vultures and black vultures. Probably lots of other kinds of vultures. I don’t know. I do know two things about them.
- They’re butt ugly.
- It’s against the law to kill them! That’s what I’ve been told anyway. I was worried they would get my chickens but everyone assures me they only mess with dead stuff.
In Missouri, when a deer or other large animal was hit and left on the side of the roadway, the highway crews came by and picked them up . . real quickly! Not here . . that’s the job of the vultures. Out in the country, almost every pole you see has a vulture sitting on top of it. There will be a dead deer on the side of the road and vultures from far and wide converge on the carcass and within hours, there’s just a pile of bones left. They pick the bones clean — real clean!
Of course, we have our own vultures. Morning, noon or night, I walk out the door and there he is. Atop the electric pole.
The first few months we were here, I could yell from the door and he’d fly off. Then I had to walk halfway to the pole and wave my arms and he would fly off. Now, nothing I do sends him on his way.
He sits up there like he owns the place. I think he knows I can’t do anything to him. It wouldn’t do me any good to do anything to him because another one would probably take over residence atop that pole. I guess after seeing him up there every day for over a year, I might miss him if he was gone.
There was one sitting on a pole midway down the driveway. He wasn’t used to us driving that way and once we got the driveway finished and began using it, he would fly off every time we drove down the driveway but he’s used to us now and he doesn’t even fly away.
Sure wish they liked S-10 pickups! That’s about the only way we’re ever going to get rid of it!
Maybe tomorrow I’ll have a better topic for your early morning reading! 
This was a GOOD TOPIC because it was UNIQUE. I have never read about someone’s PET VULTURE before – and I think he has become your resident, albeit, pet vulture….TIME TO NAME HIM! LOL.
Thanks for the morning entertainment!
sao in Midlothian, VA
Be sure to watch for buzzards on the roads and highways in your neck of the woods. They can fly into your grille, hood or windshield. Oh what a ugly mess!
Where we used to live,there were vultures who hung out in the local cemetery. They would be sitting on the highest monument in the middle . Here’s some pics-http://lifeinthelandofdreamydreams.com/wordpress/2009/02/12/mt-holly-vultures/
Seriously, I love vultures. They are nature’s maid service and save us a lot of clean up seevice around here. I would LOVE to have a pet vulture like that!
We have a crow that hangs out at one of the gas stations in town. He hangs out all morning until he get’s his fill of dog treats then he flys off for what ever adventures he has planned for the day! I love all of your little stories,
Kim
I don’t think they would bother a chicken unless it was very sick they are much too slow however I do know they will kill a newborn calf. They killed one of ours two years ago.
He’s not hoping you and Vince are the next to go I hope. I would think it is a weird sign to have one over me every morning. Do they eat up the dead rattlesnakes too.?
At one of the zoos I brought my son to – they told us that they get a lot of “road kill” from the highway department to feed the animals. I thought that was interesting! Cheers! Evelyn
There are about 16 turkey vultures living in the tallest sycamore tree on the next block. I had never seen them before I moved to Utah and we live right downtown, a town with about one hundred thousand people! They may be ugly but in the early summer evenings they are spectacular to watch as they are all up and gliding.
I agree with your #1 assessment! Do vultures make much noise?
Better not lay still for too long out there in the driveway! That’s sick, I know, but I just couldn’t help myself.
Yes, do not hit one with the car. We had friends who did, broke the windshield and they could never get the smell out of the car. Sold the car in the summer when they could have the windows open. Not fun, she said much worse than a skink smell.
When my grandkids were little and rather shocked when they first saw vultures having dinner, I explained to them that they had a very important job…that they are “God.s cleanup committee”! And that seemed to appeal to them as the term has continued for years!
Think of it this way: if it weren’t for vultures, the world would be covered with dead things! However creepy, they are quiet.
We have them, unfortunately. They pecked at the rubber roof on our RV and ruined it. I saw a special on the news last week about them pecking away at any rubber on vehicles. So watch out.
In California we have giant vultures called Condors, still just as ugly.
Judy,
I think they are about the ugliest bird alive. When Darling Granddaughter(DGD) was about 6 we saw a whole bunch(about 30 or so) on the ground near her school. I stopped so she could look , see and watch them. I told her Morgan those are about the ugliest birds you will ever see. Her answer was”No Meme they aren’t ugly!” So even to a child they see something goo d in ugly things. Taught me something that day.
She did something like that when they were cutting trees around us like crazy. She had just learned in the ist grade what tress did for us. She told me to stop she wanted to tell the men something. SO I stopped. She let them have it about cutting the trees down and what they were doing to our planet. I dropped my jaw that she did this a seven year old. So maybe there is a chance when the kids grow up they will stop all this destroying our trees and planet.
I was driving down the road and I saw two of them fighting over a piece of something dead in midair. Neither of them were paying any attention to the fact that they were fighting in the middle of the road. Yup, you guessed it….along comes a semi truck and SMACK, they were both dead. I kinda felt bad……
There are vultures roosting in the trees at Beck’s Prime, an upscale hamburger place in the Woodlands located on a lake. Today, there was one waddling on the ground like a duck. We ate outside because we had our little dog with us, and that vulture kept hanging around, even with the dog growling at it. When we left, it jumped up on the table to see if we left any food behind. No wonder it was so fat! Until today, I also thought vultures only ate dead things. It was disgusting…ewww!
I had no idea that there were vultures where people live even if the blogger lives out in the country!! I’ve only seen pics of ugly vultures in books so I really enjoyed your great pics and very interesting blog today! Actually, my daughter just informed me that recently there was a butt ugly vulture hanging out by one of our barns & the joke going around the barn was who was the vulture waiting for to “kick the bucket?” Thx again! I do so enjoy your blog posts ~just never know what to expect to read about next & that certainly keeps the interest here!
Penny in So CA
As Libby describes, we too have a flock of turkey vultures here in our midwest town that love to gather on the tall cellular tower downtown about 4-5PM each evening. The tower also happens to be across the street from a funeral home, but I don’t think the vultures are after that! They have a large woods nearby where they roost, and not far away, a very nice river with lots of woodlands by the banks.