What Happens When You Stumble Into a Turkey Vultures Nest

Wednesday May 21, 2014 Jenner CA.

The answer to that question is a lot of hissing

It seemed like a nice day to go kayaking at Jenner. :O) Off I went and was down there before 11AM and put my boat in the water.

The sun was out with a light wind and it looked like I was the only one on the water today, until these two biologists showed up by Eagle’s Landing. They are collecting data from the measuring devices attached to the red buoys.

A hike up to the Old Indian Women’s Face Rock

I was feeling real lazy today, but I wanted to hike up to the old Indian Ladies Face rock up on the hill above me.

This was my view of the rock up on the hill. I wanted to check out her mouth, which is the slot on the right side. I’d never looked into it before and John said it was interesting, so I had a mind to check it out,but my body was feeling a bit on the slow side today.

Going up the trail

Just the same, I landed my boat at the Old Indian Ladies Face Rock trail and started up the hill through all these ferns and a lot of poison oak too. The place is full of poison oak, so it doesn’t get many visitors and the trails are hard to find also. It took me several years to find most of the trails in this area, just to get on up to the rock, as the trails come and go and are not easy to follow, even when you think you know where they are.

I made it up to the rock with a  bit of huffing and puffing, remember I said I felt real lazy today, but I made it. :O)

The view from the rock

This was my view down the river from the rock when I got on top of it. Paddy’s rock down there.

Close up of the wild flowers on the edge in the above picture.

My view up the river from the top of the rock looking at the Highway 1 bridge.

The crack in the rock

So, John told me he checked out the crack that forms the old ladies mouth, so I thought I’d check it out also today as I hadn’t ever looked in there all the times I’ve been up to the rock.

This is the crack in the rock that forms the old ladies mouth looking down on it from the top.

A vulture flew out of the crack

I had to work my way down and around the rock to get into it and as I approached it, a big Turkey Vulture clumsily flew out of it. Hummmmmmmmmmmm. That sure reminds me of what a vulture looks like taking off from it’s nest which I’ve only experienced once, near Armstrong Woods Park, a number of years ago. For some reason it never donned on me that it might just be eating some dead thing. The big bird left and I entered the crack and went down into the ferns that were growing there.

Hissing

As I stepped down into the ferns I was greeted with a loud hissing sound that permeated the whole area and I couldn’t tell where it was coming from.

I stepped down into these ferns in the crack and all of a sudden, hissing broke out.

Two little chicks

When I was thinking about this might be a turkey vulture nest, I was thinking I might fine a couple eggs on the ground, like I found on the other nest I found a number of years ago, but, noooooooooooooooo.

I looked down in the ferns hunting for what was making all the loud hissing and I saw what I thought was a little white vulture in the ferns.

Closer examination showed it to be two little chicks coddled together to look like one, likely to look bigger for anything trying to eat them.

Here are the two little turkey vulture chicks in the fern nest.

Another shot of the little darlings. They are cute when they are young, compared to their not so cute older selves.

Turkey vultures nest on the ground and do not build nests

Finding this turkey vulture nest confirmed what I thought I already knew. Turkey vultures don’t do anything to make nests, except to lay some eggs on a likely spot on the ground and hatch them. No structure of any kind at all.

Turkey vultures seem to do most things in life effortlessly. They mostly glide when flying and eat dead stuff they don’t have to catch and use what’s available to nest without building anything and don’t pay any taxes either. Who is smarter, them or us? :O)

Hiked over to Lookout Rock

I didn’t bother those little guys long and left them alone and headed on over to Lookout rock which is a little further up on the hill then the old Indian lady rock, a couple more hundred yards to get to it. I was feeling real tired and had to push to get over to it. A little nap was in order when I made it up to it.

This is the view of the Lookout rock.

This is the view from Lookout rock looking down south to the Pacific ocean. There is a bit of haze or fog in the air.

After resting a bit, I started back down the hill going through the lush woods and poison oak too.

I put my boat back in the water and headed on in for the day for another nice day on the river at Jenner.

Of course when I got home, about all I could do was hit the couch for a nap and that’s what I did.