Why Are The Vultures Circling?

Everywhere you look here in Key Largo you see vultures circling in the sky. We have been fascinated by how they can use the thermals and the winds and actually just stay in one place for a long time soaring with wings spread.

There are black vultures and turkey vultures in Florida. It's hard to tell the difference from the ground looking up as they circle in the skies. The turkey vultures are larger but again, unless you have something to compare size to it is difficult to tell.

They have great vision like the eagle or hawk and can spot food from quite a distance. The difference is that the eagle and hawk are looking for live prey. The vultures are looking for the dead and decaying.

We play at tennis quite a bit. Actually we call it "wack-a-ball" rather than tennis. No score. No pressure. Two or three bounces is okay. Several times as we play we've notice a few vultures overhead soaring and just pausing in the wind and hanging out. Is there something they are waiting on? What do they know that we don't? At our age you begin to wonder.