We have a turkey vulture mystery! As Eaglewhisperer18 recorded yesterday, the turkey vultures returned to their loft in Missouri. TV enthusiasts were thrilled to see them after an unknown turkey vulture destroyed an egg and disrupted nesting last year.
I didn't think we'd see an egg until mid-to-late April, since our TV didn't lay until April 24 last year. I was shocked to learn that at egg had been spotted in the barn today at around 11:45am, and even more surprised to watch the female vulture seemingly pull it out of a corner, absent any laying. The egg was clearly a recently-laid turkey vulture egg, since any eggs laid last year wouldn't have survived a summer in the barn: http://youtu.be/3PV9wg8hrko.
Did our Mom lay this egg? I don't know! She wasn't seen laying it, although the camera wasn't on her the entire time. Complicating matters even further, a video taken yesterday suggests there may have been three turkey vultures in the barn.http://youtu.be/yul54oscafU
The action goes something like this:
Turkey vulture A flies in in at :02
Turkey vulture B flies in in at :07
A walks back to the nest area at :22.
B walks back to the nest area at :47
B leaves the nest area at :51
An odd flicker or shadow occurs at 1:38. Could this be another TV?
B leaves the barn at 1:42
A (presumably) leaves the nest area at 1:45 and walks to the middle of the barn
Unknown TV M suddenly appears on a bale adjacent to the nesting area at 2:00. It walks toward the door.
A returns to the nest area about 2:20
M follows at 2:47
A TV leaves the nesting area at 3:13 and perches on a haybale
A TV flies out of the nesting area quickly at 3:29, while the TV perches on the bale heads for the door.
The TV by the door wanders back and forth between the barn abd the nesting area until the video ends.
At present time, the female doesn't appear to be incubating the egg and we have no idea who laid it. If you have any suggestions or observations, please let us know in the comments! You can watch live at http://www.ustream.tv/missouriturkeyvultures
