I’m at a table on the patio of the Stillwater library enjoying the view of the town and the St. Croix River Valley.  As I sit, a turkey vulture soars by at eye level.  I wonder–do they enjoy soaring so effortlessly?  It looks like a wonderful and thrilling experience.  The bird was at eye level because the patio is on the bluff high above the river.  Now a cormorant flies by; no soaring for cormorants.  They make flying look like work.

Turkey vultures* find things to scavenge using one of the keenest senses of smell in the animal kingdom.  Some of the turkey vultures range overlaps that of the black vulture.  The black vulture uses its eyesight to hunt.  They fly high above turkey vultures and keep their eyes on them.  When they see the turkey vultures heading down toward a carcass, they follow.  Being large and more aggressive, the blacks drive the turkey vultures off from the carcass—tough luck.

When I was growing up in the 60s and 70s, there were no vultures in the Upper Midwest.  I was my first one on a fishing trip with my dad to Florida in the late 60s.  They expanded their range, and I see them every day soaring above the river valley.  I’ve only once seen a vulture on the ground at a carcass.

I photographed the three vultures spreading their wings in the morning.  They do so to increase their exposure to the sun and warm up.  They keep their body temperatures lower during the night.

Besides the vulture pics, I included shots from the last week.

*Grammerly told me that “turkey vulture” is wrong. It should be “turkish vulture.”