Sourland and the turkey vultures

[ChooksinChoppers]

Wish I could've gotten a picture .... I saw a whole flock sitting on a huge sign out by the Airport.......
"WELCOME TO SOUTH WEST FLORIDA!"

 

[theoldchick]

Turkey vultures are very curious. I discovered this one day when the hubby and I started building a small place to house my exotic birds. The vultures roosted on the water tower located behind our property and every day they came down to inspect our work after we stopped for the day. They were hilarious! I was rather surprised when they methodically started at one end of the building and circled around. They studied our flooring with intense interest. They ran their beak along the wood as if tasting it. Occasionally, they formed a huddle and made strange noises as they discussed the construction. When the walls were framed they came down and poked their ugly heads and necks between the 2 x 4's as if gauging the distance between each board. At every step the vultures came at the end of the day to check out the construction with slow yet thorough steps. When the roof was erected and the shingles nailed in place, they came and studied the black asphalt strips very intently. Then they'd hop down with a flex of wings to crawl under the floor as if inspecting the load bearing capabilities of the structure.

When the building was complete and the human building inspector came to to his job, he was alarmed to see eight giant turkey vultures perched on the roof. Eight ugly heads moved unison as he approached with clipboard in his hands. The man paused as I joined him.

"What are they doing on the roof?" he asked.

"Waiting," I said.

"For what?" he asked.

"I'm not sure," I replied. "They've been watching since the hubby and I started building this thing."

The man waved his clipboard. "Git! Shoo! Go on!"

Eight gnarly bulbed heads turned in unison to watch the clipboard move about.

"They are not moving," said the inspector.

"Nope," I said. "They'll fly back to the water tower when the sun goes down."

The man eyed me then went into the building. It wasn't a big building and all he had to do was make sure the wiring met code. As he checked one plug-in he looked out the window to see 4 turkey vultures had roosted on his truck bed and were watching him. At that moment the inspector moved a little faster. When he started for the exit, I opened the door and clapped my hands at my dog to get him out of the way.

The inspector never saw the dog. He was busy watching the vultures who had decided to rise in the air just as I was clapping at the dog.

"You got them things trained!" He shook his clipboard at me and walked swiftly to his truck.

The building passed inspection. Oddly, when the shop needed inspecting, another man came to do the job.

Yes, vultures are curious and down right entertaining when given a chance.

 

[froggie71]

A young vulture was in the yard just this morning taking a gander at our pot bellied pig. Patrick did not seem to like this bird and kept charging at it. The young vulture just moved out of reach. Finally the vulture flew into a near by tree when one of the dogs started barking. I wonder if he knew Patrick the pig was at a pulled pork BBQ yesterday.