Statler and Waldorf

This post is not for the squeamish. You have been warned.

On Saturday, I noticed a black and brown bird perched in one of the conifers right outside our living room window. It was a large, dramatic bird and kept its back turned to us. I pinned it as some kind of raptor. However, when I saw it's profile and featherless red head, I knew it was a vulture (aka, turkey vulture or buzzard).

On Sunday morning the vulture was back. This time with another vulture friend. I started to get happy, thinking that these could be our house mascots. Yay, local wildlife.  Having already met our quota of cute baby deer sightings, the vultures seemed pretty cool! Bob and I talked about what we should name them. We decided on Statler and Waldorf. Mind you, we were not really thinking about what hovering vultures are actually a sign of ... uh, dead animals. We were still thinking ... cool, big neat birds right outside our window.

By noon on Sunday, Statler and Waldorf were joined by no less than four other vultures, which were now taking over the other large conifer by our window. Two vultures ... interesting. Six vultures ... creepy. Scenese from Hitcock's 'The Birds' started to roll through my mind. Could they fit down our chimney?

The birds spent quite a bit of time in the trees.Watching, shifting from branch to branch.  Eventually, one by one, they would make a broad swooping glide and come to rest under the conifer tree. Due to our fence line, I could not see what they were doing. Curious, I went out the side gate to take a look. This is what I found:

Really? A dead and partially-scavenged Bambi under our tree, about 20 feet from our house? Gross. I guess this explains why we had so many vultures making camp in our trees.

Waldorf enjoying his lunch.

So now, I am wondering how long it's going to take for these vultures to take care of the baby deer. And when is it going to start to stink?