[TN-Bird] Re: Vulture nests
- From: Scott Somershoe <Scott.Somershoe@xxxxxx>
- To: TN-Birds <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2013 18:02:51 +0000
I just wanted to share a little on vulture nesting sites. I get contacted
somewhat regularly about nesting vultures and have a little firsthand
experience to add.
First, I found a Turkey Vulture nest on the ground under a downed tree in
Louisiana about 10 yrs ago. The nest was under the upper third of the tree
with decent sized branches. I found the nest by accident as the downed tree
was along a path we were using in the woods for a research project (easier
route than through 10 ft tall blackberry). One day I was walking over the tree
and 2 young vultures hissed and went bonkers while I was trying to get over the
tree. Had to reroute path through the blackberry.
Vultures often nest in deer stands and duck blinds. I'm told nearly all duck
blinds on Old Hickory Lake have nesting vultures, so don't go sticking your
head in one of them in spring and early summer! They also will nest under
abandoned houses and trailers if the crawl space access is open. As already
mentioned, they do nest in old barns and old outbuildings. I received photos
of a Black Vulture with eggs in a 10 ft deep sink hole in middle Tennessee a
couple years ago. You could look right down on the eggs. I also saw a pair of
suspicious Black Vultures on a rock wall along the edge of Percy Priest Lake in
spring a couple years ago, however the nesting cave was not very high above the
water level and would have flooded once the lake rose to summer pool. Black
Vultures also have nested on a gravel roof under an HVAC type unit on a
building at Vanderbilt in Nashville for a couple years.
Needless to say they are quite opportunistic in their nesting locations!
Cheers,
Scott Somershoe
This doesn't directly have much to do with the nest-or-no-nest discussion
itself, but I've also heard of Vultures (I think they were Black Vultures)
nesting in barn roofs/lofts. One family in particular I know had them nest in
their barn roof, and the young became so tame that they would walk right up to
people, perch on the porch, eat cat food from the deck, etc. They weren't
birders, so I'm not sure how much they knew not to purposefully tame them, but
the Vultures nested there more than once.
For the nest discussion, I'm another one of the number that hasn't heard of
them nesting up in trees before.
Ryan Trenkamp
Niota
McMinn County
State Ornithologist
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency
P.O. Box 40747
Nashville, TN 37204
615-781-6653 (office)
615-781-6654 (fax)
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