For 2 summers now (2023 and 2024) our backyard has become a kind of daycare center for a couple of newly fledged young black vultures. The parents nest across the creek, in an abandoned treehouse, and once the little ones are big enough to fly, mom and pop drop the kids off with us while they go looking for food.
When they’re little, vulture chicks are improbably cute. They’re powder-puff pink, with black faces and enormous black beaks. Our neighbor with the treehouse has sent us photos of them and we’ve published some on our Community page.
Here at TBW Daycare, the young vultures usually hang out in a big live oak tree near the house or up on an owl nest platform that Dan constructed some years ago. When they’re hot or thirsty, they flap down to one of the water bowls. The parents always know where to find their offspring and they stop by from time to time to feed them and make sure everything’s OK.
Last year, a live-stream watcher from Berlin dubbed the vultures The Addams Family. It’s perfect, and so that’s what we call them. They seem to like it.
This year, Pugsley Addams injured his leg and we all watched anxiously as he hobbled about and struggled to balance when he perched on a branch. And then just as his leg was improving, he had more bad luck; he lost the long toe on his right foot. It was nasty injury and we have no idea how it happened. He could fly, but landing and standing clearly hurt, and his parents, Morticia and Gomez, left him in TBW Daycare while he recovered and tried to get used to his handicap.
His sibling, Wednesday, was off with the grown-ups by now so poor Pugsley was alone most of the day. We all felt sorry for him and watched anxiously for every visit from a parent – as did Pugs; his excitement at seeing mama or papa was heartwarming. He would sometimes do a little hurt-foot hobbling dance and flap his wings – especially if lunch was in the offing.
And speaking of lunch, this video shows a lunch delivery. Now, we’ve seen some pretty gross stuff in our time, but this takes the cake (or whatever). Mama had swallowed what looked like half a cow and it was Pugsley’s task to somehow extract it. Easier said than done, but after much tugging and struggling he managed to pull the biggest, grossest, nastiest-looking lump of ex-animal ever seen out of his mama’s crop, and then he gleefully choked it down.
#texasbackyardwildlife