YES.. it is Catherine!! It's the cirle of life!! (Ha ha) I love Vultures! Really cool birds.~~Angie

Within the past say 3 years I have turkey vultures spending the night in the huge cottonwood in the very back of my yard. They spend their nights in this neighborhood....sometimes at my house, some times at another house a block away. There is a huge group circling every night in the summer...like 20 or more birds. But I do have a picture where I counted about 40 birds in the tree one fall after the leaves were gone. I wonder when they will leave? ( I am in central Iowa) do they all migrate as a flock? One at a time? Where do they nest? And why do I never see a vulture eating any of the dozens of road kill deer in this area? I haven't seen a vulture on the ground in Iowa ever! Can anyone shed some light on these mysteries? Linda C

ok, i have waited this long because i couldn't narrow it down. my first love at a raptor dates back to kindergarten- the bald eagle. actually it is pretty "ironic": i can remember asking my mom for a quarter to "help save the bald eagles" i don't know if it was the teacher, or if it was the school, but i remember i needed to take it to class. so, here i was 30 years later, fighting development of plum island as a preserve for their winter and nesting sight. i am proof that educating children and raising their awareness works! now, on the other extreme, i just love the kestrel. this is strange for me because i am a "bigger the better" kind of person- irish wolfhound definitely preferred over a small dg, give me a horse- make it a "heavy horse" there is just something about the spirit of the bird being bigger than its size. i really think they have taht warrior spirit despite that apparant fragility i have heard of when kept captive. although i have never had experience with them. owl are just too tough to decide between. again, the raptors seem to win me over despite size- oh, that screech owl's song! a am partial to barn owls simply because ot the endangered/threatened status. i have never seen one! the great horned does win over the barred, but that doesn't make the barred any less "endearing." i do like the turkey vulture, too. so that about sums it up (love red tails in flight calls, they are always saying something) i ahven't gone in to many species. mostly i am trying to stick to the ones of my area. but, the harpy eagle, now there is a magnificent bird! anyone see jeff corwin with the harpy on his arm? it kept pecking his head. i say pecking because with that kind of strenght it was more like a love tap!

Sometimes they sit in one of our huge pine-trees, wings slightly spread, sunning themselves. I always tell them to go somewhere else, I am not ready yet LOL