Posted on 04/13/2008 9:15:17 AM PDT by devane617
My bird book says that vultures and birds of prey (Eagles, Hawks, etc) are members of the same family. I guess that means that the eagles and such are the ones without any patience!
Sounds more like an excuse to kill them. They are nature's clean-up crew. They have their place in the scheme of things
I don’t think vultures can digest fresh meat.
They have very little in the way of stomach/intestines to process fresh meat.
They have to wait until it is decomposing. Then they can digest it.
That’s why this article is way off.
They’re awesome animals. The first time I saw them with a roadkill deer I was like a kid on his first visit to the zoo.
We have mostly black vultures here, and I’m rather glad we have them to clean up the dead stuff. They use the updrafts that develop over the water and the cliff our road is on to float around and look for food-I have also seen them pounce on lizards and small snakes on the deck, carry them up onto the upstairs balcony and eat them.
I’ve never seen them catch a live mammal, but if my dog or one of my cats is sitting by the door the balcony, they will walk right up and peck at it or spread their wings, which makes the cats fall over themselves to get under the bed while the dog jumps at the door barking. They also perch on the peak of the roof and peck and claw the caulking from around the vent pipes and chimney flashings so that has to be redone every year. Other than that, they are not a bother.
Yes, as well as their “Trial Lawyers Association” card.”
In Miami, the crapital city of the Sheeples republic of FloriDUH, vultures roost on the court house roof.
The accepted consensus of legal opinion is that they are NOT reincarnated trial lawyers. They are reincarnated divorce lawyers.
In NJ the black vultures are relatively new - I first saw them about five years ago. They attack newborn calves, lambs, kids. I wonder if they get fawns but the fawns are darn nigh invisible. I’ve been within six feet of one before seeing it.
USDA report on the vultures here.
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ws/statereports/NJ/vulturenj.pdf
Sounds like the biggest problem is roosting - some people in the next town had about 50 on their roof every evening - can you imagine the damage from the guano and the reek of it?
A few, not many, have picked my pine trees, to judge from the white streaks on the rhodondrons. I try to discourage them when I see them sweeping in low - they’ll make twenty circles before landing. I’m a lousy rock thrower, so will invest in a beebee gun or slingshot if the numbers increase.
The Raptor Trust was feeding their vultures dead rats the same as they were feeding owls, hawks, eagles when I visited.
oh my. Memories.
Last year, for my big brother's 74th birthday, I gave him his Red Ryder BB gun that he had carved his initials in when a boy - (My aunt had it stored away in a closet and I got it at her passing) - and that gun STILL has all it's power!
We grew up on a farm in northern Maine - and instead of snowmen, I would make snow-horses with a little snow "Little Beaver" sitting on the back - and away I would "ride"
Hey! Where's your entrepreneurial spirit!
The Spanish made a fortune shipping guano from Central America back to Spain!
I grew up in the country without a lot of kids around, so I had my trusty BB gun and literally square miles of places to find something to shoot at. I would rig up my gun with a rope sling (tied to tape around the barrel so I could still see the front sight), stuff about half of the big 5000 size box of BB’s in my pouch with some snacks and water and would not be seen again until dark.
I was Soooo disappointed when I bought my son his first Red Ryder, the cocking handle is now cheap plastic that bends when you use it, and it just feels like a piece of crap compared to what you and I had when we were young.
Might have the same spring and power, but they cheapened it up so bad I was almost tempted to not give it to him and search for a used original one somewhere.
I swear I got so good at sighting that thing after about 30K BB’s I could hit d*mn near anything I aimed for. When I got a real gun I kept missing clays and game because I didn’t have to lead everything moving by 2-1/2’....
That's what I've come to realize. This Floridian has never seen so many turkey buzzards as are soaring over the Florida Keys. On occasion, a whale carcass has washed up on State Parks, so they're good to have around.
My theory (as a birdwatcher living in Florida since 1958) is that until the Interstate—with its increased speeds—there were very fewer buzzards than today.
I did an article search for Texas, because I was posting on the latest developments after the raid, and when I saw that headline, I thought it was another article about the polygamy cult.
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