Have You Seen The Local Black Vultures?

Villanova resident Larry Stepelevich shared this photo he took of a Pennsylvania Black Vulture on the power line pole near the South Field. 

Stepelevich says the vultures are known as "Pennsylvania Black Vultures" although they have migrated from Northern Virginia into Southeast Pennsylvania.  

They are voiceless, and live mainly on "road kill". They are harmless, and considered not to be a "nuisance species".

But some people in other parts of Pennsylvania say they are more aggressive than the Turkey Vulture, according to this video.

"I suspect that they have taken up residence on the wooded hill now isolated between the Blue Route and Lancaster Avenue, the old 'Hilltop' area," Stepelevich said.

See close-up photos of Black Vultures here.

"There seems evidence that they arrived first in Pennsylvania shortly after the Battle of Gettysburg, where there were hundreds of horse carcasses to feed on, and they have continued thereafter to arrive every year. It is said that the human bodies were buried well before their arrival," said Stepelevich.