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May 16, 2011

The Circle of Life on a Farm

This isn't one of my favorite sites I get to experience on a daily basis on the dairy farm, but they live here, they eat here, they play their part in life and they're part of country living for sure.

It's not often, that I can snap a photo of them all lined up on fence posts either.  As I was driving out the other day, I spied this line up of Turkey Buzzards on the fence line.  I was hoping the baby Killdeer who would be just in front of them under the tree, who could have just hatched, wasn't what the buzzards had as an itty bitty snack.


Once on the road, and a little closer, I saw the reason they were all hanging out.  An old, resident, ferrel cat didn't make it back across the road to the ranch from Safford Lake Park.













And later on I checked on the Killdeer eggs.  They had hatched but the babies were nowhere to be found and I'm sure the ferrel cat had something to do with it........but such is the circle of life in nature and living in the country, we see it all........


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14 comments:

  1. Yep that's life. But my gosh what a great shot!

    Thanks for sharing
    Leontien

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  2. oh yes. hard to take sometimes, but as real as it gets. great shot of those vultures....

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  3. When we first moved to the country, I didn't like to see the buzzards at all, because I knew seeing them wasn't good news. But my husband (who grew up on a farm in Wisconsin) also reminded me of the circle of life, and told me that the buzzards had to eat too and that they 'cleaned up' everything. Since he told me that, while I still hate seeing them, I have a better 'tolerance' to their presence and part they play in nature and am glad in a morbid kind of way that what has died isn't going to waste....

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  4. The buzzards aren't much to look at but they do an important job. A lot of times in the winter I'll see them sitting on posts like in your pics but with their wings spread soaking up the morning sun.

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  5. Yes, whenever the buzzards appear, you know another creature met its demise and the clean-up crew has arrived. Great bittersweet shot of the line-up.
    BlessYourHeart

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  6. I've only ever seen one of those huge birds once. Great capture!

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  7. The buzzards fly through the pass here every fall by the tens of thousands. I have seen some of that, hundreds of birds, perhaps and it is an unforgettable experience. Ravens are the birds that keep our canyon clean.--Inger

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  8. those are all amazing pictures!

    great captures, too!

    hope you're having a lovely day!

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  9. Love the pictures! As far as the buzzards are concerned they are the Nature's cleaning crew and we only have to thank them for doing their job!

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  10. amazing captures with them lined up like that. certainly is a sinister group.

    fyi-i just had to look it up...buzzards in a group is called a wake. :o)
    http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/about/faqs/animals/names.htm

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  11. i am ALWAYS telling john...man...life is so tough out there in animal world....

    great photo though

    happy to visit today, my friend

    kary and teddy from slo

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  12. Yes they are common here I never know if they are watching a cow that has went down or a calf that has been born, or just a dead rabbit. I always go check when I see them. They are like little ugly watch dogs on the farm. They always make me run and check the more birds the more worried I am. B

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  13. Would much rather see them than smell the carcass the next day...lol

    Blessings Kelsie

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  14. These rascals pitch on my parents fence posts all the time...and don't get me started on them "sunning" theirselves with their wings spread out. YUCK-O!.

    I could never take pictures of them and capture their freaky-ness but you did! They just give me the willy's, haha

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