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<\/p>\nAnd some Old West Dudley family history.<\/p>\n
This is a common posture for Turkey Vultures and researchers believe it may serve a variety of functions under different conditions.<\/p>\n
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1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n This photo was taken on the morning of\u00a0April 3, 2016 as the Turkey Vulture\u00a0was “sunbathing”\u00a0on a rock in Box Elder County, Utah. Typical of vultures its wings and tail were widely spread and fully exposed to the warmth of the rising sun.<\/p>\n Researchers suggest a variety of possible functions for this behavior including heat loss when the bird’s temperature is above the thermal neutral zone and heat gain, particularly on cool sunny mornings (as this\u00a0morning was). Collectively the two behaviors are\u00a0referred to as\u00a0thermoregulation<\/em>. When their feathers are damp or wet it’s a method of drying their plumage and I’ve heard speculation that it may also\u00a0be a method employed to use the\u00a0UV in sunlight to\u00a0kill harmful bacteria on their plumage. After all, the dietary habits of vultures are far from sanitary.<\/p>\n Besides its behavioral aspects I like this image for its mood. The combination of a Turkey Vulture perched on\u00a0lichen-covered rocks in a sagebrush\/rabbitbrush\u00a0setting always reminds me of the romance of the Old West which I’ve always had a strong interest in and affinity for, especially given my family history. My great-grandfather Joseph Smith Dudley (yes,\u00a0the Dudley’s were early Mormon pioneers)\u00a0and his brothers drove freight wagons loaded with supplies from Utah to the Montana mining fields\u00a0(usually to Fort Benton but also to “Last Chance Gulch” which eventually became\u00a0Helena)\u00a0through most of the 1870’s. I’ve done extensive research on Joe over the years and following is an excerpt from a Dudley family history web page I created several years ago that might explain part of my fascination with the history of the Old West and my family’s connection to it.<\/p>\n So yes, when I see a photo like this one (or even a similar scene while I’m in the field photographing birds), I often wonder how many\u00a0times Joe saw something similar on his way to Montana,\u00a0with the reins in his hands as he cussed a team of stubborn mules or horses (Joe was known to cuss a blue streak…).<\/p>\n And who knows, maybe there were even vultures circling overhead when Joe and his brothers found their scalped friends.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Addendum: As an afterthought I decided to include a photo of Joseph Smith Dudley taken in 1912 when he was 61 or 62 years old.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n It’s\u00a0my understanding that Joe was tough as nails, crusty and hard-nosed but well-respected in the early Mormon community. He killed a man\u00a0named Henry\u00a0Wadman with 3 pistol shots to the head\u00a0in 1879 when they got into\u00a0a nasty fight over Joe’s first wife (not my great-grandmother) because Henry and Matilda Dudley were having an adulterous\u00a0affair during Joe’s extended trips to Montana. Testimony\u00a0at Joe’s trial for murder indicated that Henry was the attacker and after 5 days of testimony the jury found Joe not guilty, apparently for reasons of self defense.<\/em><\/p>\n Before the trial Matilda left\u00a0Joe,\u00a0initially claiming she did so because of Joe’s habits of “horse racing and smoking” but during the trial she\u00a0testified that\u00a0the actual reason she\u00a0left\u00a0him was\u00a0because Wadman had “induced me to leave and I was guilty of criminal intercourse”.<\/em><\/p>\n\n
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Image courtesy of Utah State University Special Collections \u2013 Compton Collection.\u00a0Used by permission<\/em><\/p>\n