A Red-headed Visitor

by Donna Lewis

Right now, many birds are migrating South for the winter season.

Included in this very large group are the vultures, our friends who clean up decaying meat so we don’t have to. They are built just for this specific task. Lucky them.

We have two species of vultures that are commonly seen in Texas, the black vulture and the turkey vulture.

Vultures are BIG. They have a wingspan of six feet.  When you see them up close, you’ll know what I mean.

Yesterday, a turkey vulture landed on one of my platform feeders that I use for oyster shells for my purple martins.  A few other birds also like the shells for grit.

I put these structures in my bird area where I also feed bluebirds mealworms.

This guy sat there in the sun and heat for 5 hours. By now I am thinking that something is wrong. It’s 3:00 pm.  It should not normally do that.

I walked out to see if it would fly away, but it let me get close enough that I could have touched it.  I didn’t touch it of course; I value my face.

While it sat there, two of its friends came down to either encourage him or eat him.

 I called two rehabbers about it. I thought it might need medical help. They agreed.

I also called the local game warden but did not hear back from him.

So, I decided to call my neighbor to see if she would help me capture it, so I could transport it to the rehabber in College Station Texas.

I got a large towel, one of my largest dog crates, and some welding gloves together.

The rehabbers also warned me of something disgusting that vultures do when they are trapped and you try to move – they vomit on you! And it stinks big time.

My friend and I were careful to approach it from the rear using a ladder.

It just sat there and just before I was about to throw the towel over it, it flew off into a tree about twenty high near our woods.

Its wings look OK, but I feel it was sick. It should have flown up and away.

We could not help it now.  This morning I could not find it.  

I hope it was able to go on somehow and migrate with its friends.

I did what I could. I wish it fair skies and long life.

As goes the saying from you know who…” Live long and prosper.”