Turkey Vultures in my back yard

DWalt

DWalt

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Over the past week, I have received several visits from a pair, sometimes three, turkey vultures in my back yard and also on my roof. Have lived in this house for 33 years, never before had vulture visitors. I can’t find anything dead there. The vultures just waddle around on the ground and sometimes on my roof for several hours. Any idea why my back yard (fenced in) has suddenly become a vulture destination and how I can discourage them? Or maybe it is just a bad omen.

Vultures sightings are not unusual in this area, just not in my back yard.
 
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Would make a nice target for a classic 5 screw Smith.

Just kidding. I think it's illegal to shoot them. :D

I'm reminded of a certain Alfred Hitchcock film from the 1960s.
 
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DWalt said:
Over the past week, I have received several visits from a pair, sometimes three, turkey vultures in my back yard and also on my roof. Have lived in this house for 33 years, never before had vulture visitors. I can’t find anything dead there. The vultures just waddle around on the ground and sometimes on my roof for several hours. Any idea why my back yard (fenced in) has suddenly become a vulture destination and how I can discourage them? Or maybe it is just a bad omen.

Vultures sightings are not unusual in this area, just not in my back yard.
Click to expand...

You don’t live at 1313 Mockingbird Lane do you?:rolleyes:

Back about 10 years ago when I did a fair amount of traveling for work, I remember seeing a house with probably 2 dozen of them on its roof! They were there every time I went by. The house had other houses around, but it was the only one with that problem. I always wondered the cause.
Larry
 
We get them soaring at the race track often. They are good predictors as animals like to play chicken with cars on track and the vultures hang out for a meal. Some days they will approach us when we are eating lunch and occasionally Ill toss them a tidbit.I like to think of them as a sign of good luck. When I'm at the track Im happy. :)
 
There's a Far Side cartoon with 2 older men in a park feeding pigeons, with 2 vultures just sitting there staring, as the one man remarks about them. If I knew which book it's in I'd share it.
Vultures are so cool flying around, circling the area. Especially going up North on Rt. 28 (Allegheny River, Northbound out of Pittsburgh), and several pairs of Bald Eagles. I need a sunroof again. But, the Turkey Vultures are just as ugly, or uglier, than turkeys when they're on the ground.
So, Mr. DWALT, do you hear creepy music, women singing in Latin when they come around? And hopefully you don't have a young grandson named Damien!
Nature is cool. Who knows what they're doing? I get one or two Redtail Hawks that hang out on the roofs around me. I know what they're looking for. See them carrying off birds from the nest or a snake in their claws.
 
I've seen vulture behavior like this in Ohio for many decades. They will sometimes move into an area to roost and return year after year. Other times they might only stay for a few weeks or maybe the summer. In my experience, the ones that hang around in suburban settings don't typically come back to the same place each year unless there is a barn or building they have nested in. This time of year when I see them on barns and houses they usually are sunning themselves, sometimes with their wings outstretched after a rain or heavy dew.

I know these birds perform an important environmental service but would not want them roosting on my house or barn. Because of what they eat they smell TERRIBLE. Their droppings on the roof of a house is not appealing and one of their defense mechanisms is to vomit when scared. Vulture vomit is one of the most vile things I've ever smelled in my life. They also have the habit of urinating on themselves to help stay cool.

Vultures are very smart. I hunt and kill a lot of groundhogs every year. There have been many times when shooting a hay or bean field over a period of several days the vultures learn of easy meals (groundhogs are one of their favorites). At the shot of my rifle within a minute or so they fill the air and sometimes just swoop down instantly to a kill I've made. They learn a rifle shot means dinner is on the table! I've seen this in multiple counties so it's not a localized thing.

My cattle raising uncles and cousins in Virginia don't like the aggressive black vultures and tell me they have lost calves to them.

If it's not too hot to sit outside where you're at, I think I would try to scare them away and would beat on something loud or use a "bird bang" if it is permissible where you live. As someone mentioned before shooting a turkey vulture is not legal.
 
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Vultures are evil and must be destroyed!
At a place I worked, the turkey vultures developed a fondness for all the cars in the parking lot. They scratched the paint, ripped the rubber off the wiper blades, not to mention the fresh coat of white they left. The place finally had to put up a timed air cannon to spook them off, but eventually they learned to ignore it.
 
jeffrefrig said:
There's a Far Side cartoon with 2 older men in a park feeding pigeons, with 2 vultures just sitting there staring, as the one man remarks about them...
Click to expand...

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and another for good measure:

8a64935966f20978fa6f643e70904c0f.jpg
 
Brand new black F-150 and I parked it beneath a large oak tree at my son's house one night.

Vultures decided to roost there that night. Spent all the next morning cleaning all that mess off the new truck before it ate through the clear-coat. Almost ruined my new truck!

,
 
soFlaNative said:
They have an excellent sense of smell.
Click to expand...

My understanding is that they also smell (as in stink). Friend of my mine told me about riding one of his friends and his father up the Natchez Trace Parkway, and as they approached some roadkill that some vultures were feasting on, one of the birds was a little slow in flying off and was caught in the grill of their truck. It was a few miles up the road before they got to place where they could pull over and pull the vulture's carcass out of the grill. He said the stench was overpowering and alsmost made them physically sick.
 
Turkey Vultures

During a trip to Cody, Wyoming, we watched a presentation on the Turkey Vulture - with a live bird. They are nature's garbage disposal, with gastric juices so strong that they can eat diseased, rancid or even rabid meat with no ill effects.

We see them soaring overhead here daily, and for some reason, I prefer them to the smaller black buzzards.
 
We have a lot of red headed buzzards here in Southern Indiana. There is a rec area about 5miles south of Sugarpuss’s house called Buzzard’s Roost. It got its name from the butcher house that was located there along the Ohio River.

I killed a buzz once. I came around a curve, tall corn on both sides of the road. Old Buzz was chawing on a dead possum on the side of the road. Whatever direction they’re facing, is usually the way they take off. And it takes a bit for that big old bird to get off the ground. The buzzard snapped off the left mirror on my Ducati 848 Street Fighter. I ducked as best I could. It hit me in the left shoulder; not very hard, actually. It must have broken it neck.it didn’t even flinch.

Like Clint Eastwood said in one of those Spaghetti Westerns: “The worms and the buzzards got to eat just like everybody else”.
 
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