Vultures!
A rac.coon got run over in the road early this morning, and I went and got it out of the road so the vultures wouldn’t get run over trying to eat it. Here they are as photographed from the window facing the street.
Image descriptions and general narration below, bird IDs in the captions.
[image: two large, glossy black birds with naked grey heads+necks standing next to a heap of guts and striped fur]
These are the first arrivals, they turned up right after each other. Two adult black vultures, I think potentially a mated pair.
[image: the same birds, both with their heads raised, one standing up tall, looking in the same direction]
I opened the window and made a generic bird “wheep! wheep!” alarm call to get their attention, and their heads went up. I left them alone after that, just took pics from the window.
[image: a similar bird, but slightly smaller and with less glossy feathers, standing on a sidewalk. It shows that the birds have long legs and white feet. ]
This is the next arrival. Another black vulture, I think younger than them. The older two wouldn’t let him eat until they were finished.
[image: the same three birds as before, plus a new arrival. The new bird is slightly larger and dark brown, its feathers marked with small pale flecks along its wings. Its head is pink and the feathers come up along its neck to the back of its head. The two glossy birds are eating from the carcass, the younger black bird is watching, and the brown bird is inspecting the dry grass nearby.]
That’s a turkey vulture. Ended up with two more turning up later, but didn’t get good pics of them. The black vultures wouldn’t let him eat either, he had to wait.
[image: the four birds, but spread out, showing that a road is about 6-8 feet behind the carcass. The brown bird is far away, to the left, and on the other side of the road. The younger black bird is in the center of the image, standing in the road, and the two older black birds are still eating.]
There were still some gut bits in the road, so the turkey and the younger black vulture went out there when there weren’t any cars coming and picked up some guts. They got honked at a lot.
[image: the brown bird in flight, near the road. The underside of one wing is visible and is pale grey. The front steps of a church are visible in the background, as is the church sign, though the letters have been covered over in a program like Paint to prevent identification.]
Covered the sign and didn’t show the entire church to prevent my location being identified, it’s a pretty distinctive building. This is the turkey vulture mid-flight after a car got too close. Not pictured: the turkey vulture perching on the church sign itself to watch the others.
All six birds got to eat some amount or another, but they had to wait for the first two to eat. I turned the carcass over after these pics to let the vultures get easier access to the guts, and they’re perched in nearby trees waiting for it to stop raining. Once they’re done eating, I’m going to go and see if I can get any salvageable bones from the rac.coon. The lower jaws might be in good enough shape to use for crafts, and the paws, I think, are intact. May be able to get the bones from the paws.
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