Friday June 10, was quite an exciting day.
My wife, a high school science teacher was given an abandoned Turkey Vulture chick. A student had found it on his way to school in one of our city parks. So of course who would know what to do, but teacher?
My wife contacted the California Wildlife Fish and Game Department and they passed her on to a wildlife rescue service, as we live quite away from the rescues office we had to drive to Fresno to meet part way. That is a four hour rouns trip.
Before we left the chick was given a meal of best steak, he was quite a hungry little fellow. My wife had named him Victor for the day, though he might have been Victoria. LOL,
It was my first ever view of a Turkey Vulture close up. I have seen them on the roads around here on occasion. Also soon after moving here, five years ago, I caught Valley Fever, a nasty lung fungal infection, it leaves you weak for weeks and I had staggered to the local Starbucks for a coffee, sitting outside I heard a screech above and circling about one hundred feet above me were three turkey vultures. Maybe expecting a fresh meal. Quite possibly these turkey vultures were related to the chick as he was found only about half a mile away.
My wife used a pair of kitchen tongs to feed him the pieces of steak, though he was only about a week old, according to the wildlife collector, his beak was very sharp and gave quite a nasty nip as he snatched and gobbled down his meal. After she had finished, we closed over his box and with a lot of hissing and complaining we put him back into the car for the drive to Fresno. I was surprised by how prehistoric his hissing sounded, the sound effects people on Jurrasic Park must have gone to birds like the turkey vulture for some of their sounds of the prehistoric raptors.
It was a little sad to hand the little fellow over to the wildlife rescue people. But it is for his best and hopefully later this year he'll be flying over the mountains of Western California.
My wife, a high school science teacher was given an abandoned Turkey Vulture chick. A student had found it on his way to school in one of our city parks. So of course who would know what to do, but teacher?
My wife contacted the California Wildlife Fish and Game Department and they passed her on to a wildlife rescue service, as we live quite away from the rescues office we had to drive to Fresno to meet part way. That is a four hour rouns trip.
Before we left the chick was given a meal of best steak, he was quite a hungry little fellow. My wife had named him Victor for the day, though he might have been Victoria. LOL,
It was my first ever view of a Turkey Vulture close up. I have seen them on the roads around here on occasion. Also soon after moving here, five years ago, I caught Valley Fever, a nasty lung fungal infection, it leaves you weak for weeks and I had staggered to the local Starbucks for a coffee, sitting outside I heard a screech above and circling about one hundred feet above me were three turkey vultures. Maybe expecting a fresh meal. Quite possibly these turkey vultures were related to the chick as he was found only about half a mile away.
My wife used a pair of kitchen tongs to feed him the pieces of steak, though he was only about a week old, according to the wildlife collector, his beak was very sharp and gave quite a nasty nip as he snatched and gobbled down his meal. After she had finished, we closed over his box and with a lot of hissing and complaining we put him back into the car for the drive to Fresno. I was surprised by how prehistoric his hissing sounded, the sound effects people on Jurrasic Park must have gone to birds like the turkey vulture for some of their sounds of the prehistoric raptors.
It was a little sad to hand the little fellow over to the wildlife rescue people. But it is for his best and hopefully later this year he'll be flying over the mountains of Western California.
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