Feathered Friday - Turkey Vultures
I love birds. I've talked abut this before, In fact, I have 17 blogs where birds are mentioned. Here's one where I give you some background on where my real Interest began: National Bird Day ( 2 days late)
I work from home and have my desk situated so I can look at the window whenever I feel like It. There Is a pine tree to the left of my window and some smaller trees across the street with an expanse of sky beyond that. So, I see a lot of birds. It's pretty great.
Some of the birds I see most often (depending on the time of the year) are Cardinals, Blue Jays, American Goldfinches, Robins, House Sparrows, Mourning Doves, American Crows, and Fish Crows. There are others of course, like Dark-eyed Juncos, Tufted Titmice, Black-capped chickadees, and Eastern Bluebirds, but I don't want to brag.
Anyway, I mostly see these birds flying between trees or hanging out on the branches. But I always see the Turkey Vultures soaring the skies and riding the thermals. Earlier this week, I was lucky enough to watch them soar but also to land and, I Imagine, stop for a chat with their friends.
The local turkey vultures really love that billboard. On a clear morning the early sun beams right on It. You'll often see them standing with their wings extended, warming up. Their body temperature drops at night while sleeping just like our does and the sun Is an easy way to get warm. Standing In the sun can also kill off parasites on their feathers.
Back to the turkey vultures who spent some time outside my window....
I don't have any photos of turkey vultures dining together but when doing so they are called a wake.
You can see It clearly In the above photo that Turkey Vultures don't have feathers on their heads, this Is so their food doesn't sully their feathers. You can't see It here but their "noses" are a horizontal hole so the scents of newly dead animals wafting In the breeze will be picked up and they and their friends can make their way to them and establish their wake. Eating dead animals doesn't make them sick because of their Incredibly strong stomach acid.
Isn't nature fascinating? I spent at least 40 minutes just watching the vultures hanging out on the rooftop across from me. What a day!
Did you learn something new about Turkey Vultures? There's so much more about them, what Interesting fact do you know that I didn't Include here? Tell me In the comments!
Hey, I'm Kimberly.
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Nice photo story on the Turkey Vultures. I see some of them here at times and mostly sitting on roofs!
I did some reserach for you, KW - Turkey vultures helped engineers find gas leaks. They have one of the strongest senses of smell of any bird, and they can pick up ethyl mercaptan, the gas given off by rotting meat. In the 1930s, Union Oil workers noticed vultures circling over spots along their pipelines. The company had added that same compound to its gas, so the birds were pointing straight to the leaks.
They also cool off by peeing on their own legs. This behavior is called urohidrosis. As the liquid evaporates, it lowers their body temperature on hot days. The uric acid may also kill bacteria they pick up while standing in carcasses.
You can see straight through…
I just learned so much from this post! I especially love the photos of the turkey vultures hanging out on the billboard. It looks like they are catching up on the latest gossip. 😂
I did learn something new about turkey vultures. That term "a wake" is so fascinating since turkey vultures look for dead things to eat. Oh, and turkey vultures fly in circles as they look for their meals. It's kind of scary when your raft capsizes and you're swimming in the water and the turkey vultures are circling over you...... (where is Alfred HItchcock when you need him?)
I love that there are different names for groups of vultures doing different activities. Eating together being called a wake is rather macabre. Fitting for October.