Yesterday I was in south Jersey. Not far from Atlantic City. I say a dead deer on the side of a road with 3 vultures picking at it. At first I thought it was a dead dog. But it was a young buck. I had to drive back to take a second look. Whoa! They looked quite different from the ones I saw in Texas. The ones in Tex were bigger and uglier.
Seriously? Where have you been? The vulture should be the state bird we have so many of them. I usually see dozens of them on a daily basis. Of course they have plenty to eat with northern NJ being the Road Kill Capital of the US.
Dude, there were turkey vultures eating a squirrel in the road in front of my house this weekend. We were walking the dog past three of them ripping up a squirrel in the street a couple months ago and the damn birds didn't even move! in fact, one of them was eyeing Nikki!
Turkey vultures!! That's what they looked like. Big ugly turkeys. I'd imagine they would not be near me. I was on a country rode.
There are turkey vultures everywhere along the East Coast (and a good ways inland, by my observation). People don't believe me when I say that's a vulture flying overhead, though. They want to think that it's something 'majestic' like an eagle or a hawk. They've probably never seen a bald eagle chowing down on roadkill like I've seen.
We have a pair of Cooper's hawks in the neighborhood too. I've never seen them eating, though, they're too proud to stand in the frickin' road.
Bald eagles will displace vultures if they are around. So maybe it was a bald eagle that was flying overhead. If you saw a bald eagle eating roadkill, that means they chased away any vultures that may have been around.
Ugh, vultures. A disgusting creature. Don't they shit on their own feet or something? I am glad we don't have those up in Canada. (At least where I live.)
As ugly as they are up close, they are rather majestic in flight. There were a couple of them riding a thermal upwards in the draw behind the house the other day. It was fascinating to watch them gain a couple thousand feet of altitude without flapping their wings once.
You know, I never could tell a buzzard from a vulture. Don't they both eat roadkill and fly around in groups, and are quite big?
Buzzard is really a generic term in America. Around here (Texas), what we call a buzzard is actually a Turkey Vulture.
I see turkey vultures all the time. The easy way to identify them in flight is that they rock their wings back and forth while they glide. If you city folk want a close-up look at vultures (and hawks, owls, and eagles), visit this place: http://www.theraptortrust.org It's free. See http://www.theraptortrust.org/the-birds/hawk-facts/vultures for info on New Jersey's vultures.
Birds are very interesting looking animals. Vultures especially so. Strange how their heads are vaguely human-like...
Okay, don't read this if you haven't eaten dinner yet. "The turkey vulture has few natural predators. Its primary form of defense is vomiting. The birds do not "projectile vomit," as many would claim. They simply cough up a lump of semi-digested meat. This foul smelling substance deters most creatures intent on raiding a vulture nest. It will also sting if the offending animal is close enough to get the vomit in its face or eyes. The turkey vulture often directs its urine right onto its legs. This serves two very important purposes. In the summertime, wetting the legs cools the vulture, as the urine evaporates. (The vulture cannot sweat like us). In addition, this urine contains strong acids from the vulture's digestive system, which kill any bacteria that may remain on the bird's legs from stepping in its meal." turkey vulture Well, they are more interesting than parakeets.
Ah, but if you ever direct a Priceline commercial or an episode of "Boston Legal", you may at some point say "Shat, on your feet!"
