Close-up Vulture

One day, recently, my son called out to me from the living room, "There's some sort of hawk or something thrashing in the bushes!" I feared that a hawk, hunting for a small bird, had entangled itself in the deer netting that had been draped over the bushes by the previous owners of our home. I sighed. 

When I took a look, I knew right away that it wasn't a hawk. I couldn't see much of the bird at first, just a wing flapping up now and then, but it was a BIG wing. After some minutes, it became obvious that we were looking at a turkey vulture. We still didn't know if it was caught in the netting or not, but it was thrashing about wildly in the bushes. 

Just when I was wondering whether or not to go out to it to see if it was stuck, and wondering if I'd need to call a wildlife specialist, the vulture moved. It became apparent that it was eating something. I snapped a few pictures, and must have disturbed it when  my lens bumped the glass of the window, because it flew to a nearby branch. I took a few more pictures while it moved about the branch preening. 

Later, after tending the livestock, I caught a whiff of something terrible. It came from the bushes that generated such movement and excitement earlier in the day. Gingerly, and unable to ignore my morbid curiosity, I walked closer and took a look.  What I saw was the carcass of a giant black snake, about as big around as my wrist. Yuck. To my knowledge the snake is still in said bush. I am not going to extract the smelly, torn, and mangled thing. Those bushes are slated to be removed anyway. So the snake can wait. We just won't hang out down wind of it!

A few days later, two vultures showed up on the same branch that the first had occupied. They never returned to the bush. Perhaps some other varmint had already eaten it. Perhaps our presence at the nearby window deterred them. 

We often see these birds from a distance soaring and scavenging. I love to see them riding thermals. But up close, their nostrils and ugly heads are far from beautiful! Here are links to a previous posts of mine about these giant birds, in case you're interested: http://livingwaterhobbyfarm.blogspot.com/2013/08/vultures.html  http://livingwaterhobbyfarm.blogspot.com/2014/03/fish-and-vultures.html