Life Down on the Farm, in Small Towns and in the Great Outdoors
A trip tp eastern Lancaster County provided a look at the following scenes:
A group of vultures found something dead and furry by the side of the road. There was one black vulture and several turkey vultures.
There were also plenty of horses enjoying their Sunday off. I think almost everyone likes horses.
Disclaimer: There are no pictures of horned larks in this post
The grapevine (okay, Ebird) continued to carry news of horned larks, Lapland longspurs, and snow buntings in farmers’ fields in northwestern Chester County near Honeybrook. As mentioned in my previous post, I had visited this area over the Winter in connection with a trip to try to find a snowy owl that had briefly been seen nearby. On the first try, I had no luck. This time around I spotted horned larks in small flocks, which is a new species for my life list. This is a very picturesque area with lovely farms that merited more photos.
This young farmer was fertilizing his fields for Spring.
Here’s a better look.
Cattle feeding and soaking up the sun.
Two Amish schoolhouses are close to each other in this area.
Some looks at the farms and fields.
The plastic tubes are there to protect the young trees as they grow along this riparian boundary. The tubes will biodegrade over time.
Pennsylvania “standing stones.”
Black vultures have been making their way north in recent years and appear to be here to stay in Pennsylvania. Primarily a resident of the American south and parts of the southwest down into South America, they have been slowly extending their range north. Similar to the larger turkey vulture, they have a black, rather than red, head, and distinctive white patches at the tips of their wings.
They are a species of concern because they are more aggressive than the turkey vulture. They eat carrion, but they will also attack young or infirm live animals. They also can be quite destructive, pulling the seals off of car windows, for example. I witnessed this behavior at the Conowingo Dam Fisherman’s Park a few years ago. A hapless SUV parked off by itself was never going to be the same.
Southerners have learned to adapt and live with this bird, so expect we can too. I would hate to see the turkey vulture displaced, as they are now such a common sight, especially in rural areas. A flock of black vultures can also drive the native turkey vulture off carrion. The vultures photographed here were in southern Chester County.
