The Air is Full of ...Vultures!

I know I have written several times about how much I love it when the “ air is full of swallows”. Their graceful swoop always means the return of summer and then in the fall, on the Cape, it was always a thrill to see thousands of Tree swallows mass together, dipping and diving over the dunes, swirling in funnels like avian tornadoes as they psych themselves up for migration. Well, here in Texas, I am also thrilled to have swallows but, more often, when I step out the door, the air if full of vultures!

The other morning when I went out to walk the dog, there was an avian tornado all right, one comprised of about 35 vultures, a mixture of Turkey Vultures, and Black Vultures. Clearly someone in the wild kingdom wasn’t so wild anymore. But it is often that way. I have started volunteering at a Wildlife Rescue place where not only do I see numerous vultures riding the air currents as I drive, but when I arrive, the place is lousy with them. Some are there opportunistically for, after all, the “rescue” part implies some animals aren’t completely up to snuff and might need a sanitation crew to take care of the clean up after. However, others are there for they themselves have been injured and, lucky for them, the Rescue people found them before their brethren did.

One Black Vulture that is there, hmm I think his name is Sam, was raised by someone with a kind heart but not very schooled in the nutritional needs of vultures. As so often happens, this animal has deformities caused by a lack of nutrition in its growing period. Think misshapen shells in turtles that need a ton of calcium in their diet to form the shell and often don’t get it in the hands of well meaning amateurs. Here in Texas deformities that often crop up are the misshapen hooves of deer that have been fed deer corn. Again, the well intentioned but uninformed people who set out “Deer Corn” don’t understand how bad it is for the deer. You see it sold everywhere, grocery stores, hardware stores -”low price, stock up”. However, feeding a deer corn is rather like raising your child on cotton candy. Little nutrition but yummy I guess, so they are happy to consume it. However they pay dearly for it later. Not only with deformities but sometimes it can cause death within 72 hours. They don’t have the intestinal enzymes to digest it and in short order their digestion fails. It’s sad. But I digress.

Back to Sam. Humans raised him and because vultures easily imprint on their caregivers he is happy to be where you are. My first day, I was in a building that houses all the sheets, bedding and laundry and while I washed bedding, Sam was happy to keep me company, pecking at my shoes, untying my shoe laces and every now in then attempting flight. If it wasn’t sad that he can’t fly, his antics would win some mega bucks on Funniest Home Videos. He starts flapping, and then because his wings aren’t symmetrical (one of his deformities) he spins in a circle, finally gets about a foot or two of lift then spirals down again. Like a helicopter spinning out of control, luckily it is only from a foot or two. Then he starts again; pecks your shoe, unties your retied laces and flaps about. It made my laundry job far more entertaining then it is at home.

I guess we should include a word about Black Vultures here to get the credit for being an informative blog. First of all they are more social than Turkey vultures and that’s why you see them in such large gatherings. There is strength in numbers so where they couldn’t hold their own, one-on-one with a Turkey vulture, as a group, they drive them away from carrion. They fly higher and flap more often than Turkey vultures do and hold their wings in less of a “V”. An easy way to identify the Turkey vulture is that it looks like a V when if flies, all the better to catch the wind at low altitudes while it glides over the countryside sniffing out decaying animals. Both types of vultures have excellent senses of smell, tough stomachs that aren’t affected by the rotting things they eat, and both nest far from people.

They don’t actually build a nest but just lay the egg on the ground, in a cave, a hollow tree, or an abandoned building, as long as it is secluded. They say the vulture pair will check out a potential nesting sight for a couple of weeks making sure its not a human hangout. And they don’t spread disease and some people think, but rather prevent disease from spreading. So, even if you grew up with the cartoonish version of the hulking, sulking, vultures that spelt certain doom, don’t believe it; they are doing us all a service. And if a camera ever catches the whirl-a-gig act of Sam, I predict one of them will be famous. And I will be able to say, I knew him when!