Turkey Vulture Rescue!

[wildlifewarrior]

Hi everybody thought i would tell you alittle bit about my day!

As myself and another person were heading down a powerline cut in the middle of a nature presurve to a site where we have 9 or so radioed turtles which we do research with.

As we drove we saw something hopping down the road, i thought some type of mammal and the co-worker thought it was a raven. We got closer and realized it was a turkey vulture!!! As we looked for a minute and got out of the 4x4 we realized something was wrong with it's wing. We figured it was either hit by a car or shot, though since it was in the middle of the preserve away from any roads we were thinking shot.
We called the foresty police thinking that they would come with a net and box/cage. I met the officer by the road and he looked like a regular street cop, with nice shiney shoes, and a bullet proof vest on. I looked at his crown vic and said "I think you are gonna wanna ride with me" We drove down to the bird which my co-worker was watching to make sure it didn't dissappear into the marsh. We got out and the wildlifeofficer looked at it and was like "I don't really want to put it down, i think we can bring it to a rehab center" SOOO Mr. Fancy Pants looked at me and was like, "You gonna grab it??" i was like ummmm ok i guess...
I then took a tarp and walked up behind the bird an sorta pulled a crocodile hunter on him, and sorta pinned and grabbed him, once i secured his head i picked him up with his feet in my other hand and proceded to hop into the truck. Which we then were escorted by the officer to the rehab center where the licenced person was gone for the weekend so we weren't allowed to leave it. The officer did make a call to a licenced vet who was going to come and pick it up. The whole time the officer kept saying "Mike i will have to admit you have someb@lls " I don't think he knew about my three bp back home!!
Just thought you guys would like to hear a story about an often seen but seldom handled animal. I will say when i went to grab him, the animal became alot bigger than he did from 20 feet away!! He was a bit stressed but i think as long as someone gives him a home he will do well. Everyone can be a wildlifewarrior!

~mike

[tigerlily]

It's amazing how light birds are, but so incredibly strong.

Good for you. Most people would not be impressed with the plight of a turkey vulture. I hope the poor thing gets back to the wild soon!

[wildlifewarrior]

Me too, i feel it was recent because he was still really strong. He was stressed but that was to be expected i guess!!

[joepythons]

I commend you for your good dead today .We have them around here and they are HUGE :eek: .The closest i have seen them is they flew over a house,just barely over the roof top.

[wildlifewarrior]

Thanks for the credit but i just wanted to tell everyone about something that i personally think doesn't happen everyday.

I have only ever been about 150-200 feet away from one eating some road kill (until today), and the ones flying over, they are really amazing fliers, very graceful!



~mike

[joepythons]

Thanks for the credit but i just wanted to tell everyone about something that i personally think doesn't happen everyday.

I have only ever been about 150-200 feet away from one eating some road kill (until today), and the ones flying over, they are really amazing fliers, very graceful!



~mike

Yea they look like they should have problems staying in the sky as big as the are .

[wildlifewarrior]

Yea they look like they should have problems staying in the sky as big as the are .

and you never really see them flap!