Only the Vulture Seemed Cooperative, 06-27-19

I got up around 5:00 am, let the dog out to go potty and fed him his breakfast. Then I headed over to the Effie Yeaw Nature Preserve for a walk. I was joined by fellow volunteer trail walker, Mary Messenger (“The Other Mary”). The weather today was beautiful, cool, breezy, sunny… in the 70’s. Just gorgeous. I was able to keep the bedroom window open for most of the day to let the fresh air in.

At the preserve today the sightings were few and far between, and Nature was playing keep-away (we’d see something, but it was gone before we could get any decent photos of it). It took quite a while before we spotted a single deer, and I’m hoping that’s because a lot of the does are off having their babies right now. Among the deer, I did see a couple of bucks in their velvet, including the one with the wonky antlers (long on one side, stunted on the other).

And I came across a male Wild Turkey that I assumed was sick. It was hunkered down on the ground and breathing in short breaths, as though it might have been in pain. It let me get to within touching distance of it and made no effort to get up or get moving. My brain goes to the two most pervasive threats to the turkeys: rat poison and West Nile virus. The turkeys in the preserve are surrounded by a huge residential area… and those nasty poison-pellets folks put out for rats look like food to the birds. And we’re in the middle of the mosquito season, so West Nile can be a factor for many animals. There’s no way to know what was affecting this papa, though, unless he can be caught and examined.

I took a photo of the turkey with some of the landscape markers so it would be easier to locate him at a later date/time if necessary.

According to the National Wild Turkey Federation, other things can also impact on Wild Turkeys, such as avian pox (which can result in the lesions in the esophagus and make breathing difficult for the birds) and several different kinds of equine encephalitis. (Usually, though, the birds are carriers of the equine diseases and don’t succumb to them themselves.) Avian influenza and Mycoplasmosis can also be problematic, but they usually only affect domestic turkeys kept in small confined areas where they’re breathing each other’s crap for days on end. Poor babies.

On a happier note, we did come across a very cooperative Turkey Vulture who was preening himself on the end of a large barren branch in a tree… and on that same branch was an Eastern Fox Squirrel preening, too. So, we got quite a few photos of both of them.

CLICK HERE for the album of photos.

The Other Mary had to cut her walk short because she had a lunch date with an old friend, but I kept walking for another hour or so after she left, so I put in about 4 hours of walking before heading home again.

Species List: