Vultures on my roof
Not long after I awoke yesterday morning, I was sitting, watching videos on my iPhone in my bedroom when I heard a commotion on the roof above me. At first, I thought it was squirrels and didn’t think much about it. However, the noise continued and after a while I heard the sound of flapping wings. A sliding door leads from my bedroom to a balcony overlooking a meadow. What I saw was two large, black birds. Since I had the iPhone with me, I took the picture below.
After I’d taken this picture, I went back into the bedroom and grabbed a better camera, with a better lens and went back out. A couple more of the birds flew into the tree you see behind the bird in flight in the above picture.
After taking the pictures I waved my arms around a lot and made plenty of noise and shortly afterwards they all flew off. There were five of them in all as you can see in the picture below.
It was pretty obvious that they were vultures of some sort. Almost exactly three years ago I took a picture of a Turkey vulture (see below) in another nearby tree. It was a long way away in a quite dark shady area, with bright light behind it. It’s a truly terrible picture, but it gives a sense of what turkey vultures look like. They’re larger birds, with distinctive red heads, which give them their name. Clearly these were not turkey vultures.
The only other vultures we have around here are black vultures. According to Bird Watching HQ:
These birds get their name because their entire body is covered in black feathers and a bald head that features black skin. But as they are soaring, you can see silver feathers on the underside of their wings.
Just remember that Black Vultures have black-colored heads and are short and compact, where Turkey Vultures have red-colored heads and are longer and lankier. If they are soaring above you, Black Vultures will display silvery wingtips. Turkey Vultures have gray feathers that cover the majority of the underside of their wings, and they also fly with their wings slightly raised, which resembles the letter “V.”
Black Vultures are monogamous and will stay with their mate for many years. The loyal pair are excellent parents and will defend their nest, eggs, and young vigorously. Interestingly, these vultures build their nests on the ground in stumps, caves, thickets, brush piles, or hollow trees. No nesting material is used either!
Baby vultures are fed by their parents for up to 8 months, and the entire family develops strong bonds. Large communal roosts are common, where relatives can gather to meet up, and unrelated vultures are aggressively chased off.
Black Vultures are commonly seen hanging around Turkey Vultures, and it’s not because they are best friends. Between the two species, Turkey Vultures have a MUCH better sense of smell. Black Vultures use this fact to their advantage and follow Turkey Vultures to a carcass. And many times, the more aggressive Black Vultures will chase away their vulture cousins to have the food all to themselves. I wonder if Turkey Vultures ever feel used?
Like most vultures, these birds are mostly silent. The only noises you may hear are grunting and hissing. Trust me; you won’t be hearing any lyrical tunes from these birds!
So, I now know that they’re black vultures.
But why were they hopping around on my roof?
At first, I thought that perhaps one of them had picked up a small, dead animal and carried it up to the roof. Then the others had joined in. I went out to a spot where I could see the top of the roof and there was nothing there.
I discovered the reason later in the day. I was sitting on the balcony eating lunch when I looked into the meadow and noticed something I hadn’t seen before. It was some distance away and at first glance it looked like a fallen branch, but it couldn’t be as there were no trees nearby. I had a camera with a long telephoto lens in my bedroom, so I took a closer look. It was a dead deer! It must have been this that attracted them. My roof was just a convenient roosting spot.
I went down to get a closer look and, of course couldn’t resist taking a picture. It’s pretty gruesome.
And the day had barely started. I bit later on I went out and came across this:
A couple of snakes live under my porch (see below for a picture taken May 2021 . I used to see them basking in front of my door. As soon as they heard me coming they’d slither away at high speed. I haven’t seen them for a while, but I guess that at least one of them is still around as I just came across this molted snakeskin. This individual seems be a little over three feet long.
