Attracting vultures to your backyard habitat

Everyone can get doves, crows and blue jays to come to their yard just by putting out some sunflowers seeds, but other birds are much harder to attract.

Vultures may not be considered beautiful by many, but they do serve a very useful purpose. Here in South Florida a few vultures hang around most of the year, but around October the numbers increase. I won't speculate on the rumors that this migration of vultures coincides with the arrival of the retired crowds from New York, Massachusettts and other northern states.

Since vultures are not attracted by the normal seeds and fruits that are present in your yard, you must use other methods of attracting them. You can see by looking at these pictures, one of the baits used to attract them. You must make sure the bait is in an open area so the vultures can see it, soon they will be circling around, and once one spots it, others follow. Their circle will get lower and lower as they look for any movement. If the bait doesn't move, the vulture will come down and start feeding.

Okay, by now, hope you have all realized this post is a joke, and no dogs were harmed. That is my dog, Max, and he really enjoys sleeping in the sun. The fact that vultures were starting to circle around our property and were getting lower, however, is not a joke. This has happened on several occasions, I just happened to have the camera ready yesterday while I was hoping for a picture of the hummingbird. I always have this vision of the hopeful vultures seeing him move, and going DARN IT, it isn't dead.