No, this post isn't about Wall Street banks or once endangered California Condors. It's about the common occurence of coming across nature's display of what happens high up on the food chain. On my way to golf at Bird Creek in Port Austin this week I came across this scene on Highway M-25 along the shoreline.
Huron County is overrun with white tail deer. Some weeks you will find deer carcasses littering the shoulders of the roads every ten or fifteen miles. Whitetails appear alongside the road very frequently. This time of the year they are grazing and, by and large, don't jump out on the highway in the same way as they do during the fall mating season.
This large whitetail probably met its demise when it hit a vehicle or the vehicle hit it. From the looks of the carcass, it has been down several days. Turkey vultures, frequently in flocks of 5-7 circling high in the distance, had settled down for their supper.
I stopped the car, lowered the window, and caught this image. The Turkey Vulture Guys didn't miss a beat. They stayed put and guarded their plates. I'm not sure why they lined up the way they did. The three on the right almost look like they were photostopped into place. There must be some prescribed behavior that they demonstrate when threatened by a creature higher on the food chain than they are.
Copyright 2011
Wanda Hayes Eichler
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