Buzzard behavior.
 

I kept hearing something on the porch this morning that didn't sound right. We put a gate up to keep the dogs and chickens off the porch because I have cabbage plants and garlic on a table and don't want them messing things up. I swear it was buzzards on my porch.

When I went outside I saw what looked like my blacks chickens on steroids. I don't see well in the distance so did a double take a dang if it wasn't dozens of buzzards. I realized they were in the chicken tractor and I didn't see a chicken anywhere. As I ran towards the barn to shoo them away I saw them all over the roof of the barn, in the garden, in the trees, and sitting in the roof of my house. I figured something huge must be dead for that number of buzzards so I went up toward the road expecting to to find a dead or dying cow. After they left the chickens reappeared.

I made enough noise they finally left and there was nothing dead I could find. What in the world made them come swarm around here ? They don't kill and eat things, right ?

Here is just a few of them as they began to fly off. Attachment 35056Attachment 35057

they will kill living things...especially new born calves...i have seen them sitting around on fence posts while a cow is laying in field giving birth...waiting and hoping for a chance to get at a wobbly calf.


if it will hold still they will start "scavenging".

:runforhills:Wow! I'm just turning 69, that would scare the heck out of me.

Oh boy. We have two pregnant cows but neither are near birth. What scares them off other than a half blind, squealing, grown woman running like a banshee towards a chicken tractor ?

read please...


In Virginia, 115 incidents of black vulture interactions with 1037 livestock animals were recorded during 1990–1996 (Lowney, 1999). Vultures disabled young lambs and calves by first pecking out their eyes and then attacking vulnerable soft parts (rectum, genitals, nose). Cows giving birth were attacked in a similar manner. The prey animals were attacked by groups of 20 to 60 vultures.


http://controlpredators.com/special/12.html

Jeez. :(
Guess a need to put on my glasses and practice my shot, huh ?

Don't stand still. Would they be migrating? I've never seen that many in the group before. Sheesh creepy to the extreme. I've seen the result of their feeding, not nice.

I hope they are migrating. It was really creepy to see them on the roof tops. They are huge compared to the crows that stop by here and there.

Do you think just shooting a shot gun into the ground would scare them away? Maybe the sound???

Black Vultures are sedentary, except in northern portions of their range. In winter, particularly during harsh weather, many individuals leave the northernmost portions of their breeding range in the United States. Individuals sometimes undertake short-term local movements in advance of oncoming inclement weather and return once weather conditions improve. Most Black Vultures migrate in flocks that range in size from several individuals to several dozen birds. On migration, the species soars extensively both on thermals and mountain updrafts. Like other soaring migrants, Black Vultures typically avoid crossing large bodies of water. Black Vultures extended their range into Pennsylvania in the early part of the 20th Century, and the first confirmed account of nesting in the Commonwealth was reported in 1952. Since then, the Black Vulture has become a fairly common breeder near Hawk Mountain. The Sanctuary recorded its first migrating Black Vulture in the autumn of 1979. Local as well as migratory Black Vultures are observed at Hawk Mountain. Each autumn approximately 50 migrating Black Vultures are counted at the North Lookout, usually in October and November.

I doubt you were seeing a migrating flock at this time of year. A shot fired over their heads (or into the group), as the situation requires, should remedy the problem if it should occur again. Normally, vultures are not easy to put off of a meal, but if they are just waiting around, they should be able to be scared off.

If you're close to one, don't scare it. They have the nasty habit of throwing up at whatever they're afraid of.

O, sorry. I thought by the heading, this was a posting that was about ME, done years ago. lol

This is one of those times you need a "procedure" to be casual and non-committal about the, clears throat, problem. Having the correct tool helps. These can be had for well under $200 at times.
http://www.gunlistings.org/uploads/1...auge_55662.jpg

Hide the chickens!!!

Our black and white cow JUST calved. How odd is that ? I wonder if the buzzards knew.

The new baby will be sleeping with momma in the barn tonight. :)

Nice place you have there.

I'm in SC and some times buzzards will pack up and hang around in larger than normal numbers, but it's usually during the winter. Hope your large group doesn't meant we are in for a cold winter! They are easy to scare off. Interestingly enough, in the winter sometimes they will roost in the same group of trees or whatever, then after a few years they will find another place to roost. For a while one group hug out on a microwave relay tower.

They are not difficult to scare off. I don't like them hanging around the live chickens though.

COWS

Oddly enough it's illegal to shoot buzzards in some states because they fall under the "raptors" label...be sure to check your state's legal laws. Same thing with shooting the hawks, eagles, etc. Very illegal and you would need to do some jail time. However, I've heard you can apply for a nuisance removal permit for certain critters and blast away.

It's illegal to kill them, at least it is here. But if they go after my animals, I'll shoot them all down. Since then I would have legal right to do so, protecting my livestock.
I hate vultures, disgusting things.

Something huge might of died somewhere near by and they were resting or something on your farm smelled like death or blood.

Double post. sorry

I have about 30-50 they sit on my roof warm up and swoop down over the cliff to a stand of pine trees. have nest on the ground in some old downed trees. The dont seem to be able to fly unless the thermals are right coming up the cliff. Maybe its just my black vultures but they dont seem to care about the chickens are the cats. Had a female a few winters ago that got hurt somehow and we helped her with a wind block around her ground nest thing she built, feed her hot dogs and heated water bowl. She survived the winter and in spring when the rest of her flock (I guess) showed back up to the pines she re joined them.

One day, after a coon had killed a doz of my hens in 3 separate occasions, and likely dragged a few way that I never found, I came out of the house and a buzzard took off from the house to the chicken house around 40ft away, It landed on the chicken house and I went back in to get the rifle. When I came out again, it was gone. They fly LOW here. Sometimes I feel like the machine gunner in Tora Tora Tora, me with my 12ga double, trying to hit one between it flying in between trees, and just a tad higher than the trees. Ive never hit one. They seem to figure out when one sees me, and the rest raise up in altitude and fly away. Ive seen a 1/2 doz at a time here.

Whether it is called aggression or hunger they are are sitting tight on road kills and waiting until the last moment to fly. It is now becoming more frequent that it is their last moment. I worry about a broken windshield in those late risings.
I think buzzard killing is illegal in most states because they clean up carrion. But as already mentioned they are taking life as well. I think it is out west where the damage has been heavy particularly with newborn lambs/ calves and birthing moms.

Some buzzards are on the endangered list, might not be a good thing to be messing with them.

Buzzards are a migratory bird so they are protected. SSS if you shoot one!

Drones. It was probably the vaccine posts.

That is absolutely the most plausible explanation I can think of. ;)

The girls were buzzard hunting this morning and saw a few but nothing like yesterday. And nothing on the porch. Apparently there was a dead cat at the top of the road two days ago and many of these birds were eating on it. But there would have had to have been a herd of dead cats to feed all of those creepy things.

I don't intend to shoot at them unless it's to scare them off - as long as they don't go killing what's alive. Then, it's on. :duel: