January 15, 2009 - A vulture show seen in close-upJanuary 15, 2009 • The Suffolk Times • 9A
;s I've
. ltures
showing up on the North Fork as
more or less a rarity, but down here in Florida
they're one of the most commonly seen birds
as they drift by in their effortless soaring from
one thermal to another.
Remember the old saying "The best is yet to
come "? Well, we watched that saying get played
out in one of the most spectacular shows one
morning, a mere 100 feet away from where
we sat eating breakfast. It wasn't long before
Barbara was clicking away, hying to capture on
camera this morning spectacle.
Where we live in Florida is a perfect place to
watch birds of all sorts, but never in five years
have we seen anything quite like the vulture
show we just witnessed. It all came about when
the weather changed and a cold front moved in
with its strong winds from the north that blew
the water out of the bay in front of us, leaving
what I suspect was good foraging for vultures.
We sat mesmerized by these huge turkey
vultures with their eight -foot wingspans, half fly-
ing, half flapping their wings, so close to us The
time was around 7 a.m, and the display lasted
for a good half hour. What struck me most was
how big these birds were as they flew directly
overhead and how their wings dominated the air
space they maneuvered in.
The sun had just come up, showing off the
pale silver flight feathers from below the birds'
outstretched black wings. They were so close we
could see the small red heads and ivory- colored
beaks of these aerialists of the sky The head of
the vulture has no feathers, to make feeding a
lot less messy. Remember, they often feed on a
large carcass, which means reaching deep inside
the animal's innards, and if the head was covered
with feathers it would be a messy affair.
There was a continuous coming and going of
these huge black birds. At one point something
spooked them and there
Focus was a frenzy of (light. The
air was black with birds
Q N and beating wings. It was a
spectacular sight!
NATURE As we finished our last
by Paul cup of coffee, the water in
Stoutenburgh front of us settled down
with its normal morning
occupants: brown pelicans,
noisy laughing gulls and diving cormorants with an
occasional great egret or blue heron that searched
quietly on the bay front for its morning meal. Oh,
and yes, for the first time as we looked even closer,
we could see an anhinga drying its wings on one of
the pilings of the dock. Dike the cormorant we are
more familiar with, it dives for its food and when
necessary sits with its wings outstretched to dry off
The same day we had that thrilling show of
vultures, Barbara was able to photograph a
red - shouldered hawk sitting on some wire right
above our place. This is a common hawk here
in Florida. It was most cooperative as Barbara
clicked away from one angle to another.
One of the fun things about writing "Focus"
is it gives both of us a deeper understanding
of our subject. Barbara goes to the computer
while I search out what the books might turn
up. For example, have you ever thought about
what becomes of all the waste the young hawks
produce'! After live days of the young messing
in the nest, nature takes over and instinct has
the birds back up to the edge of the nest, where
they shoot the waste out over the edge. Pretty
remarkable! This is done by other birds as well. I
observed this once while photographing a hum-
mingbird nest with young.
This takes care of the problem so that when
food is brought back to the nest by the parents
they have a relatively clean area in which to pres-
ent the food to the young. There's a downside to
this scenario: Waste accumulates under the nest
on the ground and therefore attracts bad guys
like raccoons, and we know what that can mean.
The last bit of interesting information on
how birds cooperate among themselves is a
short bit that brings a smile as I write about it.
While researching the red - shouldered hawk for
this week's article, we ran across an interesting
comment from the Connell Lab of Ornithology,
which told of watching a red - shouldered hawk
chasing an owl.
It is usually the other way around: owls going
after red-shouldered hawks In this particular
case the hawk was seen chasing the owl away
from its nest as the owl tried to take a nestling.
The hawk's mate meantime flew to the owl's
nest, took a young out and ate it! So much for
the old saying "Eat or be eaten!"
Suffolk T! r oy Bxbar& S_., I,j,,;,
Left: I see many of these red - shouldered hawks here in Florida. They're as common as our red - tailed hawks at home. Right: What kind of bird is that standing
there drying its wings? You might say cormorant. Not so. It's an anhinga or, as some people call it, a snake bird. Like the cormorant, the anhinga spends most
of its time tinder water searching for food.