We had one day to go birding in the Des Moines, Iowa area, and drove to Saylorville Lake. This is a wonderful bird place, and I wish that I could have had days there instead of just hours! We drove out on to the Saylorville Dam and the views were wonderful! We saw a variety of water birds on the reservoir side.....Great Blue Heron, Coots, Turkey Vultures, Ring Billed Gulls, a Cormorant. These photos are of the Turkey Vultures spreading their wings to the sun.
I love to see Vultures doing this and there were at least a dozen sitting in the rocks belows us with their wings out. Our hostess and a friend who went along with us on the trip had never seen this before and were amazed to see the Vultures sit there like that :-)
There seemed to be several juvenile Vultures that didn't have the red faces yet.
The one lying on the log looks like a juvenile for sure. After reading that they nest "on the ground in crevices or hollow logs"......I wondered if they nest here in the rock crevices.
"I'm really cute....sort of.....aren't I?"
I liked the shadows they cast on the rocks.
Casting a wide shadow
I love to see Vultures doing this and there were at least a dozen sitting in the rocks belows us with their wings out. Our hostess and a friend who went along with us on the trip had never seen this before and were amazed to see the Vultures sit there like that :-)
There seemed to be several juvenile Vultures that didn't have the red faces yet.
The one lying on the log looks like a juvenile for sure. After reading that they nest "on the ground in crevices or hollow logs"......I wondered if they nest here in the rock crevices.
"I'm really cute....sort of.....aren't I?"
I liked the shadows they cast on the rocks.
"Trick or Treat!"
I think this looks like a group getting ready for Halloween.....the "Headless Vulture" and friends :-)
Casting a wide shadowMore of the Saylorville area in the next few days. I have to stretch this out since I only have shots from one day!
%2B(2).jpg)
12 comments:
What a great variety Mary. Cute? Hmmm!! I am not sure how to answer that. :)
Great shots Mary of an extremely ugly bird.{:)
Mary, you got some great shots of these big birds. I've never seen them sunning like that! The headless one looks like he is asleep! I think they have ugly faces, but they do a great job of the clean up work they were made to do!
Aren't they interesting?! Great photo shoot!
Neat, Mary. Glad you got to visit there --even for a short time. You got some great pictures of the Turkey Vultures... My fav is the last one --with the one casting a shadow with his wings spread out... Neat!!!!
Have a great day.
Hugs,
Betsy
Hi Mary...these are great photos...you got some good differnt views of them!!
Like the Trick or Treat one. : }
WE have alot of them here, in fact one flew up in front of me when I was walking the other day!I don't know who scared who, but I took him away from possum lunch. yuck!!
These are interesting pictures -- I've never seen Turkey Vultures doing this. I like your 'Halloween' photo -- you'll need to hold on to it for use later in the month.
Thanks everyone! This was a really nice area. Just wish I could have spent more time doing nature things, although the quilt show was great, too :-)
Wow! These are fantastic photos. I always love seeing them with their wings spread. Very Halloween! I seem to have the most luck finding these at Clifty Falls. I need to go back there...
Oh Mary, when I was over in Iowa, I birded Saylorville Res quite a bit. As you say, it's a great place, but very large to be able to cover everywhere in just a day or so. I love these photos of the vultures. I really like these birds, specially when they're 'tilting' as they survey the ground below them. I've never seen this wing stretching thing tho, so loved seeing these photos!
As ugly as they are, they still are a marvelous bird, and if I were a bird, I'd be one. LOL I admire how they soar so easily.
B
Kelly: Vultures seem to like hanging around rivers. Everytime I see some sitting like this, it is near a big river.
Jenny: Oh, lucky you! I kept wishing I could spend more time there. I know we would have seen a lot more if we could have stayed.
Becky: LOL...I don't see you as a vulture, somehow. Just think of all the dead stuff you have to clean up off the highways.
Post a Comment