So Cute! Vulture nest discovered in Delaware County Park

Two Young Vultures in cave at Smedley Park Delaware County

      On Friday, Sharon and I took our grandson Max and his Mom and Dad to Smedley Park to go panning for Garnets in a hillside creek. As we were walking along, before we found the stream we were noticing the large number of American Toads that were hopping around the leaf litter. It seemed like every 50 feet or so we saw another toad. There were more toads out today then I have ever seen in one area before.

       Once we found the creek, we started climbing the hillside and spotted a small cave. My son Chris took Max over to look at the cave and noticed two white clumps at the entrance way and when Chris approached the entrance the clumps retreated back into the cave. He yelled to me that he saw two large baby raptors and that he thought they were vultures. When I arrived at the entrance and peered in, I confirmed the ID. They immediately started to hiss at us and kept it up the hold time we were watching and photographing them.

        When I got home I emailed Doris and asked if she wanted to band them but she told me that the people from Hawk Mountain might want to place wing tags on them instead. So we are in the process of trying to arrange that.

Out of focus cave entrance to nest.

       By the way, we did find a large collection of Garnets and Max had fun playing in the stream and looking for Crayfish and Salamanders.