Vultures!

[SpeakEasy]

Did you know that vultures can be the enemy of your RV and your tow vehicle? This came as news to me in a recent visit to the Everglades. I first heard about it when I was reading reviews of the campground at the Flamingo area. A camper had written that while he was camped there, vultures had attacked the rubber seals on his truck. He said it was so bad they had to leave. This was a negative review of the campground. It was so outlandish that I sort of dismissed it. Sometimes people will write just about anything if they are in the mood to write a negative review. I tend to filter things like that pretty critically.

Then, a couple days later, I was at the Royal Palm Visitor's Center. I was reading a display that the park service had put up. It was about the vultures. They attacked my rig, but I"m ok now.

Who knew?

-Speak

[mobeewan]

Shooting them is a federal and state offense as they are protected species.


However air and propane cannons are used at airports and dumps to drive birds away.

[Grit_dog]

BANG!

_____kin birds!

[Horsedoc]

So help me here, what is the reason they are doing this? I know, they aren't saying. Do they think it is a food source? Does it digest? Is it deadly? Does it bounce when they poop? 😉 😉 😉

[Gjac]

Saw those vultures when we camped in the everglades but they did not hurt the MH. I camp several times a year on the beach and seagulls drop mussels on the roof to crack them open then they **** all over it and make a mess.

[SpeakEasy]

older_fossil wrote:
We visited the Everglades last month. No problems with the vultures camping at the Flamingo campground, but they are still a problem at the Royal Palm vistor's center. Below is a picture of the vultures doing their thing. Note the tarp on one car. The NPS still provides tarps and bungees for visitor use there.



Art

I'm sure those are the very ones that got after my stuff. I don't travel with a ladder, so until I was able to borrow one to check things over, I was nervous that they had compromised my roof. Fortunately, there was no evident damage.

-Speak

[lynndiwagon]

Those look like black headed vultures. Turkey Vultures have red heads. Black headed vultures have been known to attack and kill young livestock while Turkey Vultures will kill nothing. I have a pair of Turkey Vultures nesting in an old chicken house on my property and have studied up on them. Very interesting birds. They are protected by law so you can't really do anything to disturb them. I kind of like them.....

[mgirardo]

Jekyll Island Campground has signs warning about Woodpeckers and side view mirrors. They recommend covering all mirrors.

That's crazy about the vultures. Are those folks carrying animal carcasses in their car/trucks/RVs?

-Michael

[older_fossil]

We visited the Everglades last month. No problems with the vultures camping at the Flamingo campground, but they are still a problem at the Royal Palm vistor's center. Below is a picture of the vultures doing their thing. Note the tarp on one car. The NPS still provides tarps and bungees for visitor use there.



Art

[westend]

Birds will imitate behaviors from other birds in their flock. It doesn't take long for the flock to learn a new behavior. Ravens and blackbirds seem to be very fast learners but vultures also have a strong sense of "community unity" and are opportunists to a great degree.
On the farm, we had to remove a flock of domestic geese as they wouldn't stop trimming the wires off the trucks and cars. They were a pain, within a few weeks all the vehicles needed new rear brake light or license plate wiring.

[mobeewan]

I've heard of them ripping the rubber strips off of windshield wipers too.

[johnhicks]

I vaguely recall reading that some rubber weather seals smells (to them) like rotting carcass.

[S_Davis]

I had an experience with Turkey vultures out on Orcas Island here in the north puget sound, I was on my way back to the mainland sitting in the ferry line up. There was a two hour wait for the next boat and a lot of people will park in line and go sightseeing, I was sitting in my work truck and all of a sudden this huge turkey vulture swooped in and landed on a car that was about 20' ahead of me.

It was hanging onto the top of the drivers door with its talons into the crack, you could hear it scratching the car, it sat there for a minute or so looking like it was drunk with its head kind of weaving around looking like it didn't feel so well. All of a sudden it puked its lunch on the car roof, it looked like a bloody carcass. It sat there for another minute or so and then flew off, it was about this time that the smell hit.

There were a few people that had seen this happen and one guy went over to the car and tried to get the gooey mess off the car, he was just finishing up pouring a bottled water over the roof trying to get it off before it started to eat the paint when the owner came back. I think the funniest part was watching the guy try to explain what had happened and what he was doing to his car, waiving his arms like a big bird with the car owner staring in disbelief.

[Edd505]

I was in FL driving a class 8 and woke to knocking on the windshield. I throw open the curtain to find a pelican eating bugs the window.

[D_E_Bishop]

The Kias(alpine parrots not cars) on South Island, NZ, will rip off the rubber wiper blades from cars. Birds can be weird fellows.