Looks like we're going to need a bigger feeder.

[Different Drummer]

[Ocelot II]

1. If you want to attract vultures to your bird feeders,

maybe seeds aren't the biggest draw. Leave a corpse for them, it's a good way to dispose of a body if that's what you need to do.

[2naSalit]

2. Yeah, I guess!

[samnsara]

3. i was waiting for the pic to load as i have a shitty connection and i was imagining it to be a wild

...turkey cuz they are always in my feeder..but a vulture!!!! They just look scary as all get out. At least my turkeys are kinda endearing..

[EYESORE 9001]

4. I was walking along a lonely country road

when I saw a vulture getting busy with an animal carcass off to the side. I figured the bird would fly away as I got closer, but it stayed put, opening wings halfway and making a hissing noise. Kinda gave me the willies.

[MuseRider]

5. Oooooh!

I LOVE vultures!

On my farm I can look out at what I call, "the vulture tree". It is an old tree and only half of what it was when we moved here. I do not know how long it will be here but there are at times as many as 7-10 of them up there. They certainly keep things clean around here.

What a great picture. Thanks for posting it.

[Marthe48]

7. My daughter and her cousin

tried laying down in the field, playing dead, trying to lure vultures. Didn't work, but I still grin when I think of them trying. lol

[MuseRider]

8. That is really funny!

It is probably a really good thing that it did not work. Look at that beak! YIKES! They rip flesh with abandon.

Still, I have an amusing picture in my head of that scene.

[Marthe48]

12. I always think of their carefree days

spending their time as they wanted. Even if it was sort of horrible, they were using their imaginations and being kids

[tblue37]

9. "Vulture," by Robinson Jeffers:

I had walked since dawn and lay down to rest on a bare hillside
Above the ocean. I saw through half-shut eyelids a vulture wheeling
high up in heaven,
And presently it passed again, but lower and nearer, its orbit
narrowing,
I understood then
That I was under inspection. I lay death-still and heard the flight-
feathers
Whistle above me and make their circle and come nearer.
I could see the naked red head between the great wings
Bear downward staring. I said, 'My dear bird, we are wasting time
here.
These old bones will still work; they are not for you.' But how
beautiful
he looked, gliding down
On those great sails; how beautiful he looked, veering away in the
sea-light
over the precipice. I tell you solemnly
That I was sorry to have disappointed him. To be eaten by that beak
and
become part of him, to share those wings and those eyes--
What a sublime end of one's body, what an enskyment; what a life
after death.

[Marthe48]

11. Awesome!

The Parsis in India practice sky burials. The vulture population is declining, so it's becoming a challenge to follow the tradition.

I'll share the poem with my daughter Thank you!

[Ocelot II]

14. Found that poem recently and shared it with a friend who's a composer.

I'd love for him to set it to music.

[Marthe48]

6. That bird will not become a vegan!

[Wingus Dingus]

10. Palpable disappointment that there's nothing dead lying around.

Bad Yelp review coming.

[calimary]

13. OMG...

Death in feathers.

[Solly Mack]

15. :)

[diva77]

16. He's just there to exfoliate his feet.

[Wingus Dingus]

17. He does seem to be enjoying his toes in the seed, LOL.