{"id":34731,"date":"2016-01-07T06:13:57","date_gmt":"2016-01-07T13:13:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=34731"},"modified":"2025-09-16T06:29:54","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T11:29:54","slug":"a-turkey-vulture-in-box-elder-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/01\/07\/a-turkey-vulture-in-box-elder-county\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey Vulture in Box Elder County – Nature’s Picker Uppers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AnAn adult Turkey Vulture in Box Elder County – Nikon D810, f9, 1\/1000, ISO 800, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Turkey Vultures are Nature’s Picker Uppers. They clean up road kill, gut piles and animals that have died naturally but too often they are vilified or even shot because they are seen as a nuisance, predators and because people who believe in silly, baseless superstitions think of them as omens of death. Sure, just like finding a penny face up is going to make me a millionaire, right?<\/p>\n

Like any other bird I respect Turkey Vultures for what they are, birds. But these guys are great at cleaning up the messy stuff other creatures might turn their noses (or bills) up at.<\/p>\n

\"TurkeyTurkey Vulture cleaning its bill – Nikon D810, f7.1, 1\/3200, ISO 800, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

When I photographed this Turkey Vulture in Box Elder County<\/span><\/a> last summer it flew from the post it had been perched on and landed a bit further away where it quickly began cleaning its bill on a lichen covered rock.<\/p>\n

It won’t be long and I will be seeing Turkey Vultures soaring on the thermals or cleaning up carrion again here in Utah.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to view more of my Turkey Vulture photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I photographed this Turkey Vulture in Box Elder County last summer it flew from the post it had been perched on and landed a bit further away where it quickly began cleaning its bill <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":156139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27,1148,1315,26],"tags":[4004,2663,4846,4322,11119,4098,4104,4019,2443,4618,4617,8917],"class_list":["post-34731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-turkey-vultures","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-carrion","tag-cathartes-aura","tag-cleaning-bill","tag-desert","tag-perched","tag-preening-2","tag-turkey-vulture","tag-vulture","tag-vultures","tag-wooden-post"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/turkey-vulture-box-elder-mia-mcpherson-5101.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-92b","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":36989,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/03\/11\/turkey-vultures-are-natures-clean-up-crew\/","url_meta":{"origin":34731,"position":0},"title":"Turkey Vultures Are Nature’s Clean Up Crew","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Turkey Vultures are Nature's clean up crew. They consume road kill and other dead animals and and in doing so they clean up the messy stuff.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Turkey Vulture warming in the sunlight, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/turkey-vulture-adult-mia-mcpherson-5100.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/turkey-vulture-adult-mia-mcpherson-5100.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/turkey-vulture-adult-mia-mcpherson-5100.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/turkey-vulture-adult-mia-mcpherson-5100.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":52571,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/06\/13\/photographing-turkey-vultures-on-a-june-morning\/","url_meta":{"origin":34731,"position":1},"title":"Photographing Turkey Vultures On A June Morning","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 13, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"As a bird photographer I have found that it is easy to make any species of owl look interesting and appealing in my images but it is more of a challenge to do that with Turkey Vultures but that doesn't mean I don't try. 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images of several approachable roadside Turkey Vultures sunning, preening, scratching and resting but I am happy with the photos of the birds.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sunning Turkey Vulture, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/turkey-vulture-sunning-mia-mcpherson-8995.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/turkey-vulture-sunning-mia-mcpherson-8995.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/turkey-vulture-sunning-mia-mcpherson-8995.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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McPherson","date":"September 3, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Vultures and condors are scavengers and help to clean up the environment by consuming carrion, road kill and gut piles left from the kills of human and non-human hunters.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Turkey Vulture thermoregulating in a field","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/turkey-vultures-thermoregulating-mia-mpcherson-2398.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/turkey-vultures-thermoregulating-mia-mpcherson-2398.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/turkey-vultures-thermoregulating-mia-mpcherson-2398.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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