Who knew Vultures were so short fused

[Thad]

I was just thinking about the dent in the side of my Avalanche that we got on Sunday.

The wife, our oldest daughter, and I were on our way up to the city Sunday morning. We took the back highway along the river because we weren't in a hurry and it is a nice ride.

As I was coming around a curve, up ahead was a very large bird in the road. As we neared, it flew up and left toward the trees. As my daughter was asking what kind of bird it was, it flew right in front of us. As if to give us a better look at it. I saw it was a Turkey Vulture. My wife was commenting that she never knew they were that big and WHAM!!! We all jumped and started looking around to see what we hit. We pulled over to check because we did not see anything immediate. My wife called me over to the passenger side and there was a big dent. A couple hundred feet behind us was the Vulture, not dead, but probably wishing he hadn't tried to push me off the road.

All we could figure is he must have been eating something and thought I was going to try and take it away from him.

It kinda sucked, but a few miles down the road we were laughing about it. Well, except for the dent that has to get taken care of.

I don't think my insurance guy believed me when I told him how it got there.

Anyway, watch out for those birds, I think they are very territorial...or just plain nuts.

 

[lncoop]

Re: Who knew Vultures were so short fused

I've been spending time at a camping and fishing area on the White River since I was a pup. Guess I've been going there off and and on now for thirty years. Hardly seems possible. Any way, I was up there by myself one evening waiting for my partners in crime, who weren't due to arrive until late. I don't generally get spooked by forest sounds, but I kept hearing thudding noises up in the trees, something I had never experienced. I finally shone a light up there and discovered I was hearing vultures flying through the tree tops and running into the branches, apparently making no attempt to navigate or slow down. It was really amazing and kind of spooky even after I figured out what I was hearing.