Photos: Spiders and Vulture

[ysabetwordsmith]

These are more pictures from April 13 that I didn't have time to post then.


My yard is all over spider silk, long streamers of it flowing in the breeze. I think the warm sun activated a hatching. Some spiderlings disperse with silk streamers or parachutes. Among these are some orb weavers, and we have lots of orb weavers here most summers, so that seems likely.




There's more silk in the septic garden, here visible on the dry stem of a sunflower.




The tiny orange dot is a wee spiderling.




This is from the hugelkultur pot project. The brown dot on the pot is a tiny spider that's been running around in there from the leaves. It's probably a wolf spider.




As I was working on the hugelkultur pot, a huge bird flew overhead, which turned out to be a turkey vulture. They're common here, but I don't often see them right in the yard. Still, big trees are attractive to big birds. Here the vulture is looking to the right.




Now the vulture is looking to the left. Seeing him look side to side for a flight path made me suspect he would take off soon, so I kept the camera on him waiting for it.




He spreads his wings to take off.




After several variously bad shots through the branches, the vulture soared through a clear spot and I got one good picture. \o/ You can see his little, bald, red head quite clearly.

Comments

[elisem]

Ohhh, nice!

Thank you!

[ysabetwordsmith]

I'm glad you liked this.

[iddewes]

No vultures where I live, so it is cool to see him! I am in Germany so the big birds we get around here tend to be European buzzards, red kites, herons, storks etc.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

Vultures are similar to buzzards, and indeed are sometimes called "turkey buzzards."

Re: Thoughts

[iddewes]

I think the ones in Europe are different? We get this guy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_buzzard He does not look very much like a vulture. ;)

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

Ah, okay, I tracked down the divergence.

Europe: buzzard = hawk

America: buzzard = vulture

Re: Thoughts

[iddewes]

That happens a lot 😉 I have had a bit of confusion with my German husband as I grew up in Canada, where we had elk and moose, different animals, but the European Elk is definitely Bullwinkle. 😉

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

Red deer is another.

[weird]

I love these pictures! We don’t have such birds where I live so it was a treat to see your pictures, thank you!

You're welcome!

[ysabetwordsmith]

I see turkey vultures often, but it's rare to see one so close.

[cmcmck]

No vultures here although we do get red kites and buzzards which are big beasties!

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

I learned that in Europe, buzzard means a type of hawk, but in America it's a vulture.

[batiferrite]

Oh, the webs are cool and the last pic was a really nice shot! Also, what a coincidence -- I just saw a pair of turkey vultures yesterday:


They aren't really rare where I live, either, but this was the first time that I've gotten to see them up close. I was surprised by how big they were!

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Vultures look small when they're a hundred feet up a tree. Closer, you can see how big they really are. They have a wingspan between 5 and 6 feet wide! Which is about as tall as an average person.

[yourlibrarian]

You can tell it's a vulture alright!

[pameladean]

Ooo, I see turkey vultures often, but the only close views have been from blufftops, where the vultures are soaring and playing on all the tricky wind currents and may float by not far away at all. I've never seen one land in a TREE NEARBY. Whoa.

Things are really greening up at your place, aren't they?

P.

[miscellaneous_section]

I miss seeing turkey vultures (and the turkeys themselves) since moving closer to the city. Just seeing how massive they are in person was always awe-inspiring.

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Big birds are exciting. In addition to turkey vultures we also have blue herons, great horned owls, and most recently bald eagles. :D I've only seen wild turkeys a few times.