Wake of Black Vultures - [📷 Photo Progression]
In recent years, the turkey vultures so common here in Central New Jersey have had to learn to deal with an ever growing population of newcomers.
But don't worry your pretty little red heads dear turkey vultures, luckily for you guys there's plenty of carrion to feast on here in Central New Jersey!
The newcomers I'm talking about are the Black Vultures that now often make New Jersey their year-round home.
This post showcases a wake of black vultures that I spotted on the drive home from the Mount Holly Fire and Ice Festival yesterday afternoon. One of the prominent features of the black vulture is its gray, featherless, wrinkled head (as can be seen in the first stock image of this post).
I rolled up slowly on these black vultures, stopped the car, put my Sony RX100 V into continuous capture mode, gently opened the car door, and walked slowly towards them. They tolerated me up to a point and then took to flight for the safety of an apartment building roof across a small drainage swail. And, boy, are these black vultures doing a number on the roofs of those apartments!
I couldn't really tell what they were eating, but it looked to be a brown basketball-sized object. I can tell you that I wasn't about to walk across that vulture-pooped grass to find out. You can see the brown object in a few of these images.
While I'm familiar with Turkey Vultures which are a common sight with all the roadkill that a densely populated state like New Jersey produces, apparently the black vultures have been migrating up from the Southern states for a number of years now and often times remain and breed within New Jersey year round.
I guess they heard that the cooking is good up here and that jobs are plentiful. While turkey vultures can smell carrion from literally almost a mile away, the black vultures rely on their keen eye sight and also benefit from following the turkey vultures.
Black vultures are also known to kill small animals and eat other birds' eggs if need be. I don't see them ever going hungry in these parts because it's rare to take any decent length drive and not see at least a few dead animals. Mostly deer, possum, raccoons, fox, and squirrels. And once in a while even Canada Geese, rabbits, cats, and dogs. Black vultures are also often seen feeding at garbage dumps.
It must be challenging to live in that apartment complex. It was an overcast and somewhat dreary day, but those black vultures and the mess that they make really added to the gloomy atmosphere. After taking these images I just wanted to get the hell out of there!
All images (except noted below) @cognoscere and taken on Saturday January 28, 2017 in Mount Holly, New Jersey (Sony RX100 V)
The quantity of vultures is impressive (or depressive) depends on the point of view.
I know both species from South America as quite common, but I was not aware that these birds are so fare in the north.