Vultures at Work
Posted: January 23, 2023 Filed under: Gardening | Tags: Black Vulture, nature photography 10 Comments
While on a morning walk, we came across a committee of vultures. They found some roadkill and the group kept getting bigger.
As we passed the committee parted and walked into the grass, but not in a big hurry.
The vultures finally had enough of having their pictures taken and headed onto the neighbor’s roof. Vultures are very numerous here in the winter. I always imagine they spend the time in a big meet and greet for the youngsters to find a mate. It is believed that they mate for life. I think I mentioned in previous posts, the vultures like to hang out around our high school and the trees along the busy road can be full of them. Vultures on the ground are a committee and when they fly, they are a kettle.
Automatic Gardening & Real Gluten Free Food 
Kettling is a behavior that’s more specific than just flying; hawks do it, too. When birds kettle, they catch the warming updrafts, rise high into the sky, and then glide for a while. Sometimes, they glide for long distances, especially when migrating. Here’s a short explanation. I must say, you have quite a collection of these birds. There’s one park in Dickinson where I see this many in the sky from time to time, but usually there are only a few in the air.
That is an odd term for it. It must make sense to ornithologists. Professionally, I simply some terminology, partly for simplicity, but partly because clients find it to be amusing. For example, I refer to an isolated grove of redwoods as a ‘herd’, and some naturalized perennials form ‘colonies’.
What I’ve read is that someone in the distant past saw the swirling birds as a bubbling ‘kettle’ on the stove. It’s a fun explanation whether or not it’s true.
They do like to make a big circle as they fly.
That is rather far fetched, but it is no worse than some of the horticultural slang we come up with. Every once in a while, we question some of our own slang as we realize how odd it is.
I love the names that ornithologists come up with for birds. Like a murder of crows.
A committee and a kettle? Sounds like the garden club. I have learned to appreciate vultures – after crossing a road through a nearby swamp early one morning and noting the roadkill, then going back the same way a few hours later it was all gone. Very efficient.
That is interesting. I know very little about vultures but find them intriguing creatures. I love the name for a group of them on the ground. Somehow it seems fitting.
Vultures get a bad rap, but they are important for cleaning up dead animals. They do not kill them. The main predators in my area are cars.
Great shots of important critters in our ecosystem. I really like vultures, but they are a bit stinky. I used to volunteer at Austin Wildlife Rescue and occasionally we’d get vultures in and they have an odor about them, to be sure. The babies are cute though, white and fluffy.