Does a kettle of vultures circling in the sky give you pause?
Took this picture a few years back one early morning
Turkey vultures often get a bad rap. Yes, they are pretty ugly. They do perform a vital role in the ecosystem by cleaning up the carrion. It is for some kind of scary seeing a lot of them circling overhead. Here’s some other information:
- Yes, a group of turkey vultures circling is called a kettle of vultures
- They spread their wings to warm up or dry off, usually in the morning
- They can soar for hours at a time, rarely flapping wings
- They clean up the carcasses of dead animals, keeping diseases down
- Wing spans reach up to six feet
- They stick their heads in carcasses so no head feathers to keep clean
- Buzzard is not the correct name for turkey vultures
- They DO NOT kill dogs, cats, or children
Want more information? Here is the Wikipedia link for turkey vultures.
Roadtirement 
I see these often. The only time I thought it eerie was when walking and passed one of those huge power line towers just full of them, watching me.
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The more of them there are, the creepier they look!
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Without a doubt.
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Thank you for defending the much-maligned turkey vulture. They do have a role to play in the ecosystem. They are ugly though.
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They don’t ever catch a break on the love scale, do they? There are lots of them around, which is good.
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When my husband and I were living in Tampa along the Hillsborough River, the turkey vultures would come in the fall all at once en masse and spend the winter all along the river bank. It was ominous and eerie (and coincidentally the exact kind of thing I love), but they were so cool and weird! I love seeing vulture appreciation posts!
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There was a tree near the Lake Travis dam (Outside of Austin) that would occasionally have nearly a hundred or more roosting. In the early morning they would all have their wings spread warming up. That looked both awesome and frightening at the same time!
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Reblogged this on Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News and commented:
Grew up in California and remember seeing vultures almost every day. Most interesting, was when they circled the hospital 2 blocks from where I lived.
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Yikes, that must have shook some people up, I’d think. 🙂
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I like Turkey Vultures. They are beautiful in flight. A friend who lived in Virginia said a horse died on his property, so they dragged it out to the middle of his field and the vultures had it cleaned to the bones in three days. I was impressed.
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Great story about the horse. When I raised cattle we lost a mature mommy cow. She like the horse was only bones in 3 days. Vultures are remarkable!
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They sure make it a lot easier to deal with large carcasses.
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I love vultures! Once I went canoeing in the swamps and turned a bend to discover at least a hundred vultures roosting in the trees.
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When they congregate they do make a spectacular sight. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your experience.
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Thanks for sharing up about our vulture friends!
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You are welcome and yes they are our friends! 😉
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They’re a little ugly, but it’s difficult to say an animal is ugly, they all have beauty and we need them all. I have been thankful to them in that they eventually clear a cute something rather from the road that saddens me every time I pass it. Saying a wish for it’s furry soul doesn’t prevent the sorrow & thinking of the careless driver that struck it. At least, in time, thanks to the turkey vultures that depend on the carcass for life, my memory is eventually cleansed.
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A great and kind way to appreciate these marvelous scavengers! When you study their life cycles and adaptations you can really begin to get it.
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They’re nature’s clean up crew.
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