Vultures!

Things have been very quiet in the yards lately.

Yesterday was one exception, when we saw eight turkey vultures soaring over the fields. Last year, we saw over 30 congregating in the neighbour's field as they were prepping to fly south for the winter. These vultures were flying relatively low and just soaring in circles for a long time. Seeing these birds means there was probably something dead in one of the fields. These are one of the few birds of prey that can use their sense of smell to detect food and they pick up on the odours that start after something begins to decay/decompose. That's why they don't have any facial feathers- so that the dead matter doesn't get stuck in there after they start eating. Actually, I once saw an episode of "The First 48" where a person's dead body was found when someone went to investigate all the turkey vulture activity.
Another interesting fact is that, according to whatbird.com; "a group of vultures has many collective nouns, including a "cast", "committee", "meal", "vortex", and "wake" of vultures." I always find it interesting to learn what the different groups of birds are called.