Last year I discovered a pair of turkey vultures had made home of an abandoned hunting stand on the property and observed the progression from eggs to chicks then to happen to be around when the young ones took to flight for the first time. Seeing how it was successful I hoped the pair would return this year and they did.





This years eggs.





They're really pretty cool birds and do a service cleaning up carrion. After mating, male and female both raise the young then separate later in the season to go their separate way then south to Winter. Next Spring the same two return to meet and start again.

Oops....I thought this was about the News Media.

Yeah, neat birds but their roosting area can get pretty ripe smelling. A house a few blocks away used to have a bunch of them in their trees every year. Homeowner finally cut the trees down. The situation was unbearable.

That's for sure sometimes there are some ripe entrails laying there! In my case I could care less as it's in a stand out in the woods which I'll never use.

I'll post back when they hatch.

Very cool! And cool that you’d take the time to notice and monitor.

Can't say they are back here. Never left this year.

A time lapse camera would be so cool on this nest.

 
We have hordes of them. They roost up on Yarnell Hill (+1,500 ft in elevation) and catch a thermal or whatever they do to soar. They are overhead all day in our lower area. And yes, they do an excellent job cleaning up carrion and stuff. They are a large part of the desert clean-up crew. Ours leave in November and reappear February-March.
 
Here they are taking a break in our front yard:
 

 

Sometimes nature is a messy necessity. I think this is one of those moments. Hope the hatchlings make it 'cause there's plenty of road kill to go...

No nest? Eggs just laid on wood floor?

We live near the Conowingo Dam, Bald Eagles nest every where but we also have the Turkey Vultures. So many of them it's normal to see as many as fifty on the railings of the dam in the morning. They will attack cars parked the visitors area and strip the rubber from the windshields? I guess they like rubber. We shoo them away from our fields when we have smaller lambs out while I don't think they attack the living they might peck at a sleeping lamb and do harm. Chris

quote:

Originally posted by Chris Anchor:
We live near the Conowingo Dam, Bald Eagles nest every where but we also have the Turkey Vultures. So many of them it's normal to see as many as fifty on the railings of the dam in the morning. They will attack cars parked the visitors area and strip the rubber from the windshields? I guess they like rubber. We shoo them away from our fields when we have smaller lambs out while I don't think they attack the living they might peck at a sleeping lamb and do harm. Chris

Black vultures are known to prey on live animals such as fawns, lambs, etc. The ones in Henryaz's image appear to be black vultures.

quote:

Originally posted by Angus the Kid:
No nest? Eggs just laid on wood floor?

Well, to be fair, they did crap all over the floor to provide a cozy surface for their chicks.

Last years chicks.

Watch out-those guys will puke on you if you get too close. And that's a surprisingly efficient defense.

quote:

Originally posted by ridewv:
The ones in Henryaz's image appear to be black vultures.

The ones in my pic are all turkey vultures. Look closely and you'll see the red head on most of them. A couple of the closer ones you cannot tell for sure. Their tippy/teetering flight/soaring is also a tell, but that's hard to discern from my pic. I don't recall seeing any black vultures around here, at least not close enough where I could see the head to be sure.