Wildlife Wednesday: Vultures!

Vultures and Buzzards -- those words don't usually bring nice images to mind but perhaps the images in this post just might change some minds.  A pair of American Black Vultures have joined the regular crowd of birds roosting in the trees off our back deck.  I'm joining Tina at My Gardener Says... for Wildlife Wednesday on the first Wednesday of each month.

While the term "Buzzard" refers to a number of birds of prey which are generally the size of a hawk, Vulture is a specific type of large bird found on several continents.  The American Black Vulture can be found from the Southeast U.S. all the way down to Chile in South America.  This vulture is distinguished by white markings on the legs and tips of its wings.  While they are a common sight in Texas, they are even more numerous farther south and can present a road hazard when driving in Mexico.

A group of Vultures is called a "Venue" and a group of circling Vultures are called a "Kettle".  When we drove the back way to Johnson City a couple of years ago, they circled every time I stopped to take photos.

Like all the creatures visiting our yard, I find them fascinating to watch.  Is "sweet" a word you would typically apply to a Vulture?  Isn't this sweet? 

Vultures share parenting duties and lay eggs in tree stumps or rock formations which they decorate with shiny objects (sounds like many of us gardeners with our yard art).  They feed on carrion (dead animals) so perhaps they are hanging out here waiting for road kill from a busy highway nearby.  They will also eat bird eggs or even kill injured newborn animals such as fawns. The Black Vulture relies on keen eyesight to spot their food and, unlike other vultures, do not possess a keen sense of smell.

One food source I was not aware of until I did my research is the compost pile.  There is a compost pile back there but we do not add food scraps because animals scatter it all over the yard at night leaving us with a big mess to clean up.  Vultures will eat decaying plant material so they are welcome to it if that's what they need since they provide a service by keeping dead animals cleaned up.

About the only noise they make is the sound of moving air and flapping wings when they take off, which can be startling when we exit the back door.

As August grows hotter and drier we will ensure there's plenty of water out there.



I'm making it a Wildlife Wednesday tradition to share a deer photo.  This large buck is one of the many visitors this week to the water bowl.  Soon those velvet antlers will itch and get rubbed on my favorite plants and trees in the garden.

Visit Tina's blog to see the wildlife she and other bloggers are sharing for Wildlife Wednesday.