Chick in a Tree

During the first week of June 2015 I was following the boundary line between two properties; the boundary was easy to follow since there was a line of large old trees that had once constituted a fencerow between the tracts. Now the fields on either side of the line have reverted to forest –

From Penn Pilot

From Google Earth

A large bird flying low from one of those trees caught my attention; it quickly became apparent that this was a turkey vulture. Although turkey vultures do feed in dense woodland, it’s very difficult for them to fly between closely spaced trees.

Out of curiosity I walked toward the area where the vulture had taken flight – and there was a large tree containing several big holes. One of the openings was at waist level and provided a good view inside of what proved to be a totally hollow tree.

Turkey vultures are known to nest in hollow trees as well as rock crevasses and sure enough there was a turkey vulture nestling inside the hollow tree –

In 2016 I didn’t get back to the area, but in mid-June of this year I was nearby again and decided to take a look in the tree. A hiss greeted my peek into the hole in the tree trunk – a hiss from a nestling in the tree. This was another young turkey vulture, obviously older than the one I’d seen in 2015 –

There was a camera trap in the car, I decided to set it to capture photos of the adult coming to feed the young one and so mounted it on a nearby tree. When I retrieved the camera trap a couple of weeks later there were photos of the adult on the tree -

And entering the cavity-

And of the adult feeding the nestling (its white down can be seen in the hole) -

At this point the nestling had a face only a mother could love -

It was rapidly becoming fully feathered and would probably leave the nest before I had a chance to return, so I removed the camera trap -

A vulture nest I found in 1980 was also along a boundary line; that nest was in a small cave in a rock outcrop. The young birds were far back in the cave, small tufts of white fluff –

There's a real disincentive to entering a cave containing nestling vultures since their only defense is to regurgitate their most recent meal - ugh!

No, turkey vultures don't only nest along boundary lines; it’s just that walking boundary lines takes a person to places they might never visit otherwise.