Community Chat

[Pezzie]

@silkyk 

I know exactly what you mean.  The one on the left sat for the longest time with the wings spread.  I have a pic , but it won't let me post, saying the file is too large.

DH went out, measured the rods in the fence and the grout line of the wall, based on the pic, and the wing span was 4.5 ft! 

[MamaWick]

@Pezzie  try editing your picture to bring in the edges.  I do that all the time with my deer pictures.  See what I have done with your original photo?  

[on the bay]

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@KKJ wrote:

I too find them ugly and rather repulsive, but got schooled on them recently by my 8-yr-old granddaughter. She's very smart and loves learning about different animals & creatures. She says vultures get a bad rap and are very important to the environment. I told her I still don't like them.  lol

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@KKJ,

"Out of the mouths of babes".😄

My daughter, when she was about your granddaughters age, did her 3rd grade science report on bats. She thought they were so cute!!😳

Then I think it was she that told me possums were really very gentle and shy and actually good for many things in the garden and yards. I have a new appreciation of them.

Maybe not the bats but I do see a mother possum and her baby almost every night and I think she is very sweet and pretty. Not scary looking like I used to think of them. She has a lot of white fur and her face is  gentle looking.

I love how children can see things in such different ways without predjudice.

[FiddleDeeDee]

I LOVE vultures. All varieties. There is something peaceful about them. 

[Malcontent]

@SilleeMee 

Last year in our trees there were five Black vultures.

My fur boy was barking and we went outside and looked around and we looked up and we spotted them in the trees: Yikes.

Last week we actually had a snowy owl in a tree. That is a big bird.

Unusual to see these birds of prey here.

[Malcontent]

@silkyk 

I still think they are beautiful.

[SilleeMee]

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@Malcontent wrote:

@SilleeMee 

Last year in our trees there were five Black vultures.

My fur boy was barking and we went outside and looked around and we looked up and we spotted them in the trees: Yikes.

Last week we actually had a snowy owl in a tree. That is a big bird.

Unusual to see these birds of prey here.

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@Malcontent 

You must have seen a 'commitee' of turkey vultures. That's what it's called when a group of vultures is seen resting in trees. 

[Malcontent]

@SilleeMee 

Oh, kind of like we human women?

[ValuSkr]

This past winter, our condo community was beset by a large roosting community of vultures - turkey and black.  They roosted in large numbers, in trees and along the peaks of rooftops.  They can damage the roof and chimneys, not to mention create unsanitary conditions.  They are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act so they cannot be killed. In the end, the USDA worked with us to develop and implement a harassment plan so the birds would leave on their own accord.  I understand they used a variety of tactics, including effigies, lasers, and pyrotechnics.  Apparently, the plan worked; but the birds would have scattered in any case come Spring; they are only communal in the cold winter months.

[Drythe]

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@silkyk wrote:

What is totally creepy is when they sit on the fence with wings wide open and stay that way for half an hour or more.

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@silkyk 

DH also says our world wouldn't be fit to live in without them.

I believe the wings out position helps with cooling.

They are huge, once I drove up into the drive, and there were 4 of them sitting in my way.  I tooted the horn, only slightly, and they came over to my car and stared in the window at me -they were at my eye level!