Eventually our wonderful summer interns abandoned us, and Melissa decided she needed a rest, so she also abandoned us for a week, taking a well-deserved vacation. Although our summer programs were over, Dr. Preston wanted us to take at least one bird, and hopefully more, out into the garden each day at 2 p.m. Some of our volunteers have full time jobs and others work part time, so there are only a few of us that can be more flexible. Thus a day arrived when I was the only one going to the mews that day. Knowing that there is more to do besides showing off a bird in the garden, I arrived at the museum early.
The first thing I did was to check the calendar. Melissa had left a note for me to take Suli, our turkey vulture, into the garden that day. I then filled out each bird’s info sheet, checking for left over scraps of food and pellets, noting what they would eat that night and any activities for the day. Suli greeted me by flying from her swing perch to her small tree stump perch, twirling, then putting her head down, tail up, and opening her wings around her head. She then wiped her face back and forth along the edge of the stump, looked at me and wiped her face back and forth again, repeating this a number of times. I do not know what this face wiping was all about, and I had never seen her do this before.
I talked to her briefly, then went into the work room and checked the menu for the next day. I pulled the needed mice and chicks from the freezer and placed them in the refrigerator to thaw. Next I went to the front guard desk and made the public announcement about my 2 p.m. talk in the garden. Going back to the mew, I cleaned off Haya’s feeding platform, which was full of quail feathers from the previous night’s meal. Suli tapped at her door, and I went in to visit with her. As soon as I entered her mew, she flew to her swing perch, and looked at me. I offered my hand, which she preened gently, then she decided that was enough, and gave me a peck. I said, “No!” and removed my hand. After talking gently to her, I reached up and touched her nose, hoping it wouldn’t be another bite. Happily it wasn’t. I wouldn’t want to go away with her thinking, “When I am tired of attention, all I have to do is bite.”
It was almost 2 p.m., so I carried out our donation box before returning to ask Suli to step up onto my glove. I then attached her swivel and leash, tied the leash to my glove, and took her out into the garden. As I waited for people to arrive for my talk, all of a sudden I hear “sssss sssss SSSSSSSS.” Something that many people do not know about turkey vultures, is that they do not have a voice box, and can only hiss and grunt. I have never heard these done very loudly, but she was doing her best to hiss as loudly as she could. It was the loudest hiss that I have ever heard her do. “SSSSSSS SSSSSSS,” she said. I looked at her and could see she was staring off in a different direction than where most of the people were standing. Looking off to my right, I see what is causing her problem, and I know right away what she is trying to tell me. “WHEELS! WHEELS! Scary, scary, SCARY!! Make it go AWAY!!!!!!!!” You see, Suli is afraid of anything with wheels. I took the opportunity to ask if folks had heard her hiss, and those closest to me certainly had. I explained about the voice box, and her fear of wheels, and the lady with the stroller moved it partially out of sight behind a couple of trees. Ah, now the scary thing was harder to see, and Suli could relax a little.
My talk was on Suli and turkey vultures in general to about 40 people, after which I answered questions and gave out free Suli bookmarks. I also mentioned our donation box, and talked about how we were trying to be self-supporting on donations, rather than the $3.00 ticket price we had charged earlier in the summer.
Before returning Suli to her room, I weighed her. She weighed 4 lbs. 6 oz., and I added this to her individual information sheet. Finally, it was time for everyone’s dinner. Retrieving the day’s food from the refrigerator, I had to cut a rat in half as well as gut it. Isham and Teasdale would each get a half of a rat. Hayabusa half of a quail, which was an extra portion from yesterday’s feeding. Suli would dine on a paddle fish filet, one of her favorites.
Since Suli had to work that day, I fed her first. Suli saw me coming with her paddle fish. As usual she became extremely excited. Opening her door and holding the paddle fish out in front of me, I walked to her low, stump perch that sits on the floor of her mew. She immediately jumped up onto it. Then, just as I dropped the fish she spun around, the fish hit her instead of her perch, and bounced to the floor. She immediately jumped to the floor, mantled the fish, and began pecking at it. Later when I came back through to head home, she was still on the floor. Even though the paddle fish had been devoured by this time, she was still picking through the gravel on the floor of her mew, hoping to find another small scrap.
Haya, as usual, knew I was bringing dinner before I even left the workroom. Walking down the isle I could see her clinging to the edge of her feeding platform, head stretched toward the door, as she stared expectantly toward the hall. As I entered her mew, she reached forward, plucked the quail gently from my hand, stomped her foot onto it, and gave me a brief stare before tearing into her dinner. Yum! Dinner is always a big highlight of Haya’s day.
Of course when I entered Teasdale, our great horned owl’s mew, he hissed at me as usual. I showed him the rat, as I always do, he seemed totally disinterested, as he always does. I then brought Isham, our red-tailed hawk his rat. He jumped to his feeding platform the minute that I left his mew, placed a foot on it, and stared at me. Recently, on a few occasions, he has allowed me to watch him eat, but he would rather have privacy, so I left him in peace. My day was almost done. I cleaned the cutting board and knife, and counted up the donations. After I recorded the amount, I then placed the money into an envelope, which I gave to the guard at the main desk before leaving.
As an added note, some folks were disappointed that they could not see the other birds, so I mentioned that if they were still here the next day, there would be three of us, and we would be bringing out the other three birds. I am glad I said this, as the following day two sets of people who had seen Suli, came to see Isham, Teasdale, and Hayabusa. It was nice to see folks that were so enthusiastic.
Question from Visitors:
How are turkey vulture’s feet different from hawks?
The toes of raptors are heavily padded on the bottom with large, strong, curved claws, called talons. As you look at the photo of Suli’s feet you can see that vultures’ toes do not fit that description. A vulture’s feet are poorly padded and have only slightly curved talons. Since vultures are scavengers, their feet are designed more for walking on the ground and for balancing themselves on a carcass while feeding. Rather than grasping and killing with their feet and beaks as true raptors do, vultures’ weak toes and talons are used to brace themselves as they pull meat from a carcass with their beaks. Also, since they do not have grasping toes, vultures can not carry food in their feet as hawks can, therefore vultures eat at the location of the food source.
