Spring Strut

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Strutting his stuff for his lady. Spring is in full swing in my backyard.

Across the Threshold

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A pair of turkey vultures at the threshold of the nest cavity.

Night Visitor

Posted on February 27, 2013 by MaryALivingston

Early in the night, just after dark, a raccoon visited the turkey vulture nest tree. It climbed up the backside and over the top. Paused a moment at the cavity opening, then was on its way. I worried when I first saw the intruder, a nest raider for sure. I wondered if the vulture eggs would be safe down inside the tree cavity? Will this night bandit be back?
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Turkey Vulture Rendezvous

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I can’t help but notice, a few followers have dropped off since I started the turkey vulture posts. There is more to come, and on Friday, I will reveal why I have been stalking turkey vultures.

In the meantime, I must get a better system for surveillance. I mounted an old video surveillance camera to view the turkey vulture nest tree in our backyard.

The video is bad at its best. As a backup, I mounted a wildlife cam on a ladder near the nest cavity. Today, the nesting pair gave quite the display. The footage is highly pixelated with poor image quality in general.

I headed out to retrieve the SD card out of the wildlife cam, but it was knocked askew sometime before the mating.

Any suggestions are welcome for a product that will allow us all to view this pair. They should start incubating eggs soon. Typically, their chicks start to fledge mid June around our area.

I know, I know, somewhere in here is bliss, but who can find it amongst the low res pixilation?

I thought about not posting this video, but figured some of you reading this post might have some suggestions.

Here is the video, great content, lousy quality.

Spying on the Vulture Nest

Posted on February 23, 2013 by MaryALivingston

I am uncertain as to how well this will work. Today Tim and I set up a camera to watch the turkey vulture nest. Since they have already returned to the nest, we set it up at a distance. Hopefully, we can catch them coming and going at the entrance.

The nesting spot is located deep in the cavity of a hollow tree. We measured last summer and it is 14 feet down. We have no way to set up a camera inside of the nest cavity short of drilling a hole in the tree trunk.

After some time, I may mount a camera on a pole and raise it to the top of the nest to attempt to sneak a few shots of the inside; but for now, we will keep it at a non-disturbing distance. So far, no images to share from the nest cam itself…I will keep you posted.