Remember a couple of weeks ago? I was bitching about Fall taking absolutelyfreakingever to reach South Florida? Like many of you Northerners look for the first Robin of Spring, how I look for the first Vulture of Autumn?
Well, boys and girls, just in time for the #GreatHallowTweet, the Turkey Vultures are back!
First, there was one. Then there were three:
Then there were about a dozen!
As the season progresses, that whole rooftop will be covered in sunning Turkey Vultures. A little unsettling when you think that this is the heart of downtown Miami! And then again, appropriate in a way…
This is what they look like close-up. I could never – nor would I ever – actually want to get this close, thankyouverymuch, but if I’m going to talk about the beasties, you should at least see what they look like. Charming, right? There’s a reason their heads are pretty much devoid of feathers: Being carrion-eaters, they’re able to avoid retaining a bunch of blood and guts and nasty microbes that might later cause disease if it were stuck to feathers. It’s hygenic. Hee!
Click on this photo or link and learn more about Turkey Vultures – the unsung clean-up crew of nature!
For more appetizing (in a sense) celebrations of Halloween, travel the #GreatHallowTweet Halloween Blog Hop sidebar, over there to the left, and see how 18 of my best blogger friends are whooping it up! Happy Halloween!
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Michelle at Rambling Woods is hosting Nature Notes: Signs of the Season, a weekly meme dedicated to challenging us to take a moment out of our hectic lives and notice the seasonal changes – large and small – taking place in nature all around each of us, in our own little corners of the world. Please visit Michelle and all the other participants, and maybe take some of your own Nature Notes!
Michelle is also one of our #GreatHallowTweet participants, so be sure to stop by and say Hi! You might even learn something!
Those guys are too cool!
Fascinating. I didn't know anything about Turkey Vultures. I thought that was us during Thanksgiving. hehehe.
Interesting post.
Cool! I've never heard of Turkey Vultures before. I wouldn't want to get too close either! 😛
They may be cool and necessary, but they're ugly. I mentioned once before how one landed on my windowsill at work. Gross.
That's interesting about why their heads are small. Great shots.
Just think, that turkey vulture may spend its summers in Ontario. They love the carrion (much nicer than saying road kill, eh?) that litter our country roads.I have to agree they sure are UGLY!
These are rather gruesome looking criiters but somehow eerily fascinating! Great photos!
I never knew about turkey vultures- I would keep well away from them too !
I was just about to compliment you on that amazing closeup capture when I saw that you borrowed the photo. Still, to even see them up high is a treat. Quick with the camera you were! I have seen turkey vultures on my patio because we back to the woods, but like my bathroom door where I shot the "peeping deer" blog post photo, my patio doors are also very old and cloudy. So, I look and don't photograph through the door.
Great post about the Vultures, I see them around my neighborhood year round. I think they are kind of cool looking in their own way.
Do you have any shots of the roof full of turkey vultures? That would be quite the sight.
Well…. lucky you? I guess? LOL They're fascinating to see, roosting in downtown Miami, but I gotta say I'm glad they're down there instead of up here. 😉
Awwww…they kind of grow on you after a while. LOL. I like that you linked the photo to Cornell. One of those vultures might have spent the summer here… OK a vulture gets to winter in Florida and I am here in Buffalo… something is wrong with that… Michelle