Canesister's 2025 journal - Bushel & Peck Farm

[SageHill]

Not sure what I would've done, but for certain I wouldn't condemn or belittle you. You have a heart of gold, and went more than the extra mile.

 

[Baymule]

I’m not a fan of black head vultures. They will kill newborns and eat the back end out of a female animal in the process of giving birth.

Red head vultures only eat carrion. They don’t kill newborns or the moms giving birth. My grandpa called them turkey buzzards because of their red head.

That said, I fully understand and support you for trying to save the vulture. Sometimes the best we can do just isn’t good enough, but we have to try.

 

[farmerjan]

I guess I can see you feeling sorry for it... but NOPE... a black headed vulture will not ever ever get a chance of being saved by me. Had them eat the "a$$ end " of a calf that was recovering from scours... in my BARN.... had about 15 or more of them after a first calf heifer that had just given birth and the daughter staying in the house there at the nurse cow pasture, took the 4 wheeler down and kept them away until I got there, She called me and what should she do, and I was on my way home from work... so she saved the calf...
Like @Baymule said, turkey buzzard, yes.... black headed one NO WAY....

 

[fuzzi]

Comments I've received on my most recent "questionable" decision:

Oh my god.... you are something else
Are you serious???? Why???
What's wrong with you?
Wait.... like a real, actual vulture?? Why?

Yesterday, around 5:30pm I was taking a load of trash to the dumpsters & passed something on the road. Honestly I couldn't tell if it was a trash bag, a re-tread come loose, or some kind of animal.
20mins later, on my way back home... it was still there. A buzzard of some kind, standing in the middle of my lane... soaked, drooping, not getting out of the way. I swerved & missed it. So did the car right behind me. I circled around - hit the emerg. flashers - got out and approached it. It made no attempt to leave... just hunkered there looking as miserable as a naked-headed soaking wet bird can.
I dropped my raincoat over it & scooped it up. It didn't struggle even a tiny bit. And it felt soooo thin.
I put it in the passenger side floor, cranked up the heat & pulled into a wide shoulder.
I googled 'wildlife rehabilitation near me' & spent the next hour leaving voicemails at every one of them plus a few animal control offices, and a couple of vets. Getting nowhere, I took it home and put it in a dog crate in the barn with large cardboard pieces to block the wind. It had started to look comfy in the car with the heat blowing on it & I felt bad that I didn't have a way to warm it in the barn.
Anyway, I continued to make calls and finally started getting responses around 9pm. By 11 I had Finally made contact with someone willing to attempt taking it. Message alerts kept coming in until well after 1am - people not able to help, but wanting to tell me that they hoped someone would.
This morning it was still alive & even hissed at me... weakly. I gave it a bowl of canned chicken in juice & an egg.
Around 10 the rehab lady finally responded to my message about it still being alive. She was heading my way.
I contacted Dad & explained that there was a sick vulture in my barn & a lady on her way to come get it. Could he please be up there around noon to meet her? No, he wouldn't have to do anything, just be there so she wouldn't feel weird going in my barn. Yes... a vulture.
Unfortunately, by the time she arrived it had died. Best guess is that it was a juvenile who was - for whatever reason - starving.


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Almost everyone I told the story to couldn't belive I stopped to help a vulture. Some insisted I should've just left it in the road & let 'nature take it's course'. One said I should've sped up & 'put it out of its misery.... ha ha'.

But I can't help it. When faced with a helpless being who is suffering, I have to try and help.

This endears me to you even more. You are a gentle, kind soul.

 

[SageHill]

So to those who know --- was that a black headed vulture or a turkey vulture?
From what I've read here through the years, I'd treat a black headed vulture the same as I treat rattle snakes.
We only have the turkey vultures here - Thank God.

 

[canesisters]

One of the folks I spoke with said that, from the picts, it was a juvenile black head.

 

[Baymule]

You can shoot I think it’s 2 a year, with a permit. @Ridgetop in her usual way, completely blew the mind of a conservationist at the raptor demonstration at the Yantis Prairie Day we went to. I took the prairie walk, she went to the raptor demonstration and her husband sat at our table and handed out sheep brochures.
Raptor lady was gushing about black head vultures and Ridgetop sure punctured her happy balloon. She pointed out how they are hated, they attack and kill animals that are giving birth and how a neighbor had lost 6 newborn calves to the nasty things. And she had to throw in that black head vultures could be legally shot with a permit, dead body hung up as a warning to the others. Hahaha, that poor lady was plumb bumfuzzled, didn’t know how to respond to that.

 

[farmerjan]

@canesisters ... I still respect you for wanting to "help" an animal that was injured. I once rescued 4 baby skunks that the momma had been killed on the road... went by it the next day, saw some movement and there were 4 little ones... in the weeds in the ditch along the road.. I scooped them up in an old shirt in the truck... brought them home and fed them some bread soaked in milk and called the local rescue center... took them down the next morning... one was chocolate and white, the other 3 were black and white.. and they didn't spray at that little size... couple people thought I was crazy....
Although we are overrun with deer, and the damage they do to pastures and hayfields and this year to the cornfield, has been unbeleivable.... we still feel bad for a fawn that gets killed with the discbine mowing hay. Mostly because they are innocent babies... but we have declared war on the adults after the devastation this summer... and because if we don't get a handle on the over population, there will soon be some devastating disease that is going to hit them and it will not be pretty with them dying. The mange in the bears last year, and seen in the foxes this year is natures way of culling ..... would much rather see the expanded deer hunting season this year, and ANY DAY it is legal to take does this year...will hopefully cull down the numbers some...

The black headed vultures also are destructive to the turkey buzzards... they will actually actively search out the nests and destroy the eggs, or newly hatched chicks of the turkey buzzards.

 

[Ridgetop]

I wish, those are so beautiful. Our winters are too cold for them and our summers are too hot.

We had some 50 year old camelias in the Victory huse in southern California. They need acid soil but once established will live forever with little care. You have to prune in the summer to avoid destroying new growth and blooms. I wish I could grow them here I m going to have to have a professionl landscapeer or gardener come in d tel me what and where to plant here in Texas. 100 years of landscape and plant knowledge down the drain when we moved away from the San Fernando Valley (CA) to Texas.

Raptor lady wreally could have as gushing about black head vultures and Ridgetop sure punctured her happy balloon.

I suppose I should keep my mouth shut, but just can't when people don't give all the information in teaching situations. And I did love the look on her face . . . Bad Ridgetop! LOL

The black headed vultures also are destructive to the turkey buzzards... they will actually actively search out the nests and destroy the eggs, or newly hatched chicks of the turkey buzzards.

We have hardly any red headed vultures here that I have seen, only the black headed ones. They hunt in flocks - the red heded vultures look for carrion individually. Those black headed ones will even attack humans - someone on Cattle Today said his wife went out to chase off a flock near the house around the calves and they came at her! Bad news birds - makes you realize that their prehistoric ancestors may have been dinasaurs!

 

[drstratton]

We had some 50 year old camelias in the Victory huse in southern California. They need acid soil but once established will live forever with little care. You have to prune in the summer to avoid destroying new growth and blooms. I wish I could grow them here I m going to have to have a professionl landscapeer or gardener come in d tel me what and where to plant here in Texas. 100 years of landscape and plant knowledge down the drain when we moved away from the San Fernando Valley (CA) to Texas.

There's a huge difference in climate as well as soil, between those locations. You'll get it figured out.

I suppose I should keep my mouth shut, but just can't when people don't give all the information in teaching situations. And I did love the look on her face . . . Bad Ridgetop! LOL

Bad Ridgetop...
I totally agree with you, they only want to share what fits their narrative.

We have hardly any red headed vultures here that I have seen, only the black headed ones. They hunt in flocks - the red heded vultures look for carrion individually. Those black headed ones will even attack humans - someone on Cattle Today said his wife went out to chase off a flock near the house around the calves and they came at her! Bad news birds - makes you realize that their prehistoric ancestors may have been dinasaurs!

We have turkey vultures. So thankful we don't have the black headed ones, they sound horrendous.