This last post about the wildlife here got waylaid in the bowels of WordPress, but that said…
We have lots of turkey vultures here in the hills/mountains. They love to ride the thermals drifting up from the courtyard and south pasture, and they often zip down through the air with their wings locked in “soar” mode. They also provide cleanup services when something dies, be it a squirrel on the road or a cow on the hillside. Fun fact: other birds (mainly songbirds) will practice mobbing upon vultures. Mobbing is when birds work to drive off another bird. Usually they mob crows, ravens, hawks, and other birds of prey that are a serious threat. Vultures are ideal targets to practice upon because they won’t retaliate, so younger birds especially can practice their technique without fear of retaliation.
Vultures are also ideal for helping when we have a bit of meat go off in the fridge. We plop it atop a fencepost between the house and stables, and it’s all gone in an hour or two. The trick is to put the meat up high so the wary ferals don’t try to eat it. The caveat is that the meat isn’t full of unnatural additives, as we’d rather not make our avian cleanup crew ill.
A while back I even posted some trailcam footage of one such “feeding” to Youtube:
Here’s a selection of images of our turkey vultures. You can see more over at stega.org via this link.
