It could also be that because of the poor economy, there is more discrete supplemental hunting going on and more vulture goodies to be had from deer and turkey kills than if people were eating storebought meat. I notice since the economy turned bad here that hunting has become more of an occupation than a sport, and the wildlife that were almost ridiculously friendly during the boom have become much more nocturnal and wary of people than before.
I once saw a flock of migrating turkey vultures completely eat a large dead dog in two days. It was impressive to me.
I looked around trying to see what it could have been interested in but couldn't find or smell anything but lemons and lemon blossoms. I know they can be attracted by even the smallest thing like a dead wren or mouse so I looked closely all around, to no avail. Maybe it was just coming down for wsater, but it was weird seeing him there. Or maybe it was embarassed that it got caught in the unseemly act of sniffing flowers.
Always plenty of dead deer or other road kill to keep them happy. I’ve had five of this in my yard resting that I could walk right up too. Those suckers huge. I won’t want to hit one with a car.
I didn’t know that about black vultures. I thought all ‘new world vultures’ located food by smell, but you are right.
I once saw a program where a handler had this huge griffon Vulture and asked the host of the program to smell it. Supposedly it smelled like fresh laundry, like actually really good. The handler had a deathlock on its neck so it wouldn’t pluck out any eyeballs though.
Freegards