Merced’s winged vacuum cleaners are back

They’re back.
That big bird with the red head, the ones that love to roost along M Street, are back doing their dirty work.
Turkey vultures take a vacation in the summer to raise their babies. But come fall, the big black birds come back to their old perching grounds in the eucalyptus trees near the college.
A few years ago, some of the people who live along M Street were upset about the mess. They complained, but turkey vultures don’t care too much about what people think of them. They have a job to do.
That job is to clean up dead animals. You can see the birds eating the little squashed squirrels, rabbits and possums that end their lives alongside the roads of Merced County.
The birds can fly as far away as Mariposa in one day to eat carrion. They can smell a dead animal from miles away. They can even eat a bird that died of West Nile virus and not get sick.
They may not be very pretty, but don’t slam the vultures. They do a job that needs to be done.