Sunday, November 8, 2009

Free State Vultures

We headed over to the Free State Mall in Bowie for an early morning breakfast at IHOP today, and we saw about a dozen black vultures around Free State. I've seen them congregate in this area before.



Beware. This one attacks customers that bring back late videos.





A close-up of the Blockbuster vulture.





These two guard from on top of the parking lot lights.





The black vulture diet mainly consists of animals found dead. This one waits on the IHOP roof for a customer to keel over and die after too much bacon.





This one waits for the remains of a Breakfast Sampler to be thrown away out back.





Six black vulture share a pair of trees behind the mall.





These three vultures roost on a branch together.





Black vultures look graceful when in flight, but they look a little awkward when they walk around. Check out those feet.









Classic pose. If anyone were to put a replica of a black vulture on a building, this is the pose they would use.





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7 comments:

  1. One Eggnog Pancake combo and they're set.

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  2. We came up close to a couple turkey vultures a few years back on a sidewalk in our neighborhood. They would not abandon their dead squirrel so that we could pass, and I was not about to roll the stroller and my baby right by them. Suckers made us cross the street! :)

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  3. L.A., Are you an IHOP aficionado? Eggnog Pancakes sound good, but I don't think I would hang out by the dumpsters for them.

    Morninglight, they are pretty scary looking, and I bet they could do some damage if they wanted to. I took these pictures from the safety of our car, and my daughter kept saying, "Daddy, roll the window up!"

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  4. Great pictures! Vultures are ugly, but interesting and kind of fun. I did a vulture post earlier this year:

    http://photo-cyn-thesis.blogspot.com/2009/04/cyndys-house-of-vulture.html

    Sorry for the lack of an actual link - I STILL don't have internet so I'm parked in front of somebody's house and don't have my html cheat sheet with me!

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  5. "Whatcho wanna do?" "I dunno, whatcho wanna do?" "Now, don't start that again!"

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  6. Cyndy, You couldn't take Panera anymore? I checked out your pics. Creepy having them around your house.

    Abbot, Ha. That would have made a great caption. Wish I thought of that.

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  7. Anonymous, it looks like you're right. Distinguishing cathartes aura from coragyps atratus brasiliensis has never been a talent of mine.

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