Tuesday, June 28, 2011

WBW 32-The Bone Pickers

WORK has really eaten into my blogging time..and I know you guys are probably sick of my wren family so Ill give them a break this week and catch up with them later...I have a bone to pick with the weather man.....Still 100 degrees outside--so....NO birding for me, Yes I am a wimp when it comes to hot humid weather...I DONT like it--

So I've pulled out some other Bone Pickers--The Vulture!  These birds are amazing...First off what would we do without them? Here's 2 black Vultures...chilling in the trees




They have no feathers on the face to help keep them clean.  When I worked as a volunteer at a bird of prey rehab center...we received a flock of 4 at the same time.  THEY are amazingly clean animals and polite and they dont get frantic when you are close by and they're heavier than say... a hawk of the same size!  GUESS what they enjoyed eating?? We fed frozen mice to all of the hawks and owls but (we thawed before serving of course)... for some reason the Fab 4 (as we called them) wouldn't eat our mice popcicles..they preferred RAW HAMBURGER MEAT...so what does that tell you about hamburger meat? YUK --You can dress it up with onions, mustard, and ketchup but in the end its only fit for  buzzards!





They are agile and great fliers capable of landing into the thickest of canopies









... they Glide as beautifully as any Eagle or Osprey they have a magnificent wing span and they have amazing sense of sight and a horrific sense of smell!






I always enjoy watching them..and usually
they dont disappoint me with a fly by are they checking to see if I'm dead...or ... never mind







In this shot I got 4 birds, 2 close to me and 2 more WAY UP HIGH...in the nosebleed section of the sky it looks like the sky is full of B-2 bombers...

This is the turkey vulture with the red on his face...TO me he looks very much like the Golden Eagle--if his face was feathered and his beak a bit more defined, one would be hard put to tell the difference!


A Turkey Vulture in the Air...

and one last Black Vulture shot to finish off the Bone Pickers for World Bird Wednesday!



Aw... what the heck here's ONE MORE!!

And Finally thats my post for WBW this week..Next week Ill have another update on my Carolina Wren family...they are doing great so far!

Check out other birds as seen by these super birders over at WBW-



CLICK THIS PICTURE!
PEACE


24 comments:

  1. Bone pickers! Love it! The kids around here call road kill TV(Turkey vulture)dinners. I have heard, and you seem to substantiate it, that vultures are the most compatable birds with humans. That they are darlings in every way and crave our affection! Tell me there's not a nice dark blog post there! Your pictures are outstanding and a little chilling. Not at all like wrens!
    Cheers to you Ms.Sondra

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  2. HI Sondra..You are funny girl lol!!
    We have Turkeys Vultures hereand I love to watch them circle and circle an area where something foul is going on !lol
    Love your photos ...these guys are a pretty interesting lot!!
    I with you on the humidity thing.. yuck!!
    Try to stay cool and don't work to hard!! Grace

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  3. Great post Sondra. Such beauties, only ever seen these in captivity before. Kings of the air.

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  4. Hi there - they really do have a face only a mother could love! But what a splendid bird!

    Not point in having feathers if they are going to get coated in gore I suppose!

    Cheers - Stewart M - Australia

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  5. I don't know what it is about vultures but I have been rather partial to them ever since the barbershop quartet of vultures in the cartoon version of the Jungle Book.

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  6. Wonderful photos again Sondra!! They are some of Nature's undertakers and they certainly do a very good job, not too attractive in the looks department though ;)

    No, I'm not sick of the Wren photos :)

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  7. Amazing photos and great information about Vultures, Sondra!
    Although I may not eat another hamburger.:)
    How your Wrens are doing well!

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  8. Great shots and post on the vultures, Sondra! Stay cool,

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  9. Wonderful shots of these "bonepickers" - I love the third one! That guy looks rather handsome peering from the branches!

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  10. What beautiful photos!
    The one where you can closely see the face and the eyes, they look intelligent and gentle.
    I'm snickering about the Hamburger meat.
    So true though. Yet, we still eat it,...

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  11. Bone pickers, that's a great name for them. As I have always said, they have a face only a mother could love. Great captures!

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  12. Great captures of the "Bone Pickers".
    A lovely post to read... they are a bird we don't see in the UK. and as usual backed up with your stunning images

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  13. A great series of photos of these interesting birds. I had a laugh at your description of the hamburger meat! and, yes, I am vegetarian!

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  14. Great shots of these interesting birds! I like the first frame with the vulture in flight!

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  15. I saw lots of them when I visited Costa Rica. To bad There were no time to really study them. Thanks for sharing.

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  16. Great post, Sondra, with some cool pictures. We usually only get Turkey Vultures in New England. In Germany they tried to train vultures to find the bodies of dead missing people, but the vultures weren't interested. I guess they'd prefer Hamburgers too.

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  17. Excellent post! I love it. Your pictures are so great. I posted some vultures one time, but there is no comparison. I love yours so much.

    We always remind ourselves to move a little bit faster when we see a flock of "buzzards" circling. (That's what we call them out here in the west, yee haw!).

    (

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  18. Springman I like that TV Dinners--pretty funny

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  19. Fab 4...I love it! haha.....reminds me of the scene in Disney's Jungle book with the buzzards who had the brittish accent...."Now don't start that again"

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  20. Fantastic series, Sandra. It is so exciting to see birds from books alive at your site!

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  21. I don't care if vultures are very ugly, I really like these birds and they always do a great job keeping nature clean. Wonderful set of shots!

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  22. Wow! Loved the post...and great shots of the Black Vulture! I see a lot more Turkey Vultures up here, but am starting to see more and more black vultures. Those pines remind me of the Black Vultures I saw on Pinckney...very cool.

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  23. Love the shots - wow, you guys sure do have a lot of vultures!

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  24. Bonepickers! Love the name ... and the pics you got of them. Very interesting.

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