Daily Photo: Turkey Vulture
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The Raptor Refuge rescues injured and sick birds and rehabilitates them when possible. When not possible, they care for the birds the rest of their lives.
This guy has been with the Refuge almost 20 years. He was about 12 years old when he was found, half-dead from frostbite with a broken wing, having missed his fall migration. Of the birds they work with, the vultures are most intelligent and curious. Raptors have a specific hunting intelligence, but vultures are scavengers, and that requires a more clever bird with an intelligence that we recognize as more like ours. They like to manipulate things, “playing” you could say.
Despite having a fairly unappealing appearance, I’m quite fascinated by them. There is a roost down the street from us where 30-40 of these birds hold up for the night. After the rains we’ve been having, that block smells like a cross between manure and rotting meat. I feel sorry for the people who live right next to that.
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