April 22, 2004 - Ugly on earth; a joy in the airThe Suffolk Times • April 22, 2004
Ugly on earth;
a joy in the air
JOHN ASKED ME RECENTLY what the
big bird was that he saw drifting about
in the sky. "Could it be an eagle ?" he
asked. Well, that's always a possibility,
but I think it was more likely a turkey
vulture, because I've been receiving
reports of turkey vultures from Orient
to Riverhead.
These masters of the sky
have a six -foot wingspan
and give the impression o
floating on air. Or should I
say soaring on air? In the
entire avian world, none can
rival the graceful flight of
the turkey vulture. If you
watch them closely you'll
see that they do very little.
actual flying or flapping of their wings
Most of the time they're drifting on
updrafts, thermals and winds, for it's
on these they seem to travel effort-
lessly all day long. Occasionally there
are one, two or three flaps of the
wings, but then it's back to soaring
and drifting until they disappear from
sight.
The turkey vulture is our largest
soaring bird besides the California
condor, which is in the same family. A
full -grown adult turkey vulture has a
wingspan of '72 inches. In the air
they're a joy to watch, giving us great
pleasure as they rise on the thermals.
On land they might seem repulsive to
some. Their small, reddish heads look
out of place on their big bodies. Their
heads have no feathers so tney can
reach inside a carcass without getting
all messed up as they feed on dead
animals of all kinds. Their large
hooked bills help them tear pieces of
flesh from a carcass. They often play
the waiting game of death as they sit
nearby and wait for a stricken animal
to die.
Focus
Oftentimes they'll be
seen on the ground with
ON
their wings spread out,
NATURE
looking like an aggressive,
by Paul
dangerous adversary. This is
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particularly true when the
vulture has landed near a
potential meal and wants to
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But for all its drawbacks on land, all is
forgotten when you see this master of
flight drifting above in the sky.
If you look at a turkey vulture as it
glides toward or away from you, you'll
notice the wings appear in a slight "V"
shape. This is called "dihedral." This
wing shape is one way you can tell the
difference between a turkey vulture
and a black vulture. The latter has
wings that are flat across when soar=
ing. Another way you can tell the
black vulture from the turkey vulture
is by the use of its wings. The black
vulture has a series of rapid wing -
beats as it soars, whereas the turkey
vulture flaps its wings very little in
between gliding.
This brings me to Barbara's experi-
ence with a tur zey vu Lure just last
week, right in our back pasture. A
raccoon had been road - killed down at
the end of our driveway and, having
seen a vulture on our windmill recent.
ly, I took the carcass up in the back
lot in hope of attracting this scav-
enger.
Three days went by, and then it
happened. Barbara came running into
the house, calling, "Look! Look!
Look!" She had spotted a turkey vul-
ture hopping along with its wings
spread out, headed toward the dead
raccoon. As she watched, she could
see it waddle back and forth on its
short leas and stubby feet.
The problem was that the neighbor
ing crows saw him also, and if you
know crows, you know they don't lik
anything that looks like a hawk or an
owl, so, with their raucous call, they
collected all the crows in the area to
join in tormenting the vulture. They
all answered the battle call, diving
and calling so much that it frustrated
the poor vulture grid it took off, leav-
ing its prize in the pasture.
Sorry to say, Barbara's vulture did-
n't stick around long. It
just couldn't stand the
heat from the crows, so,
with a few clumsy hops
and a jump, along with
much wing beating, it
was eventually air-
borne. In my reading on
turkey vultures taking off, the experts
say they often lighten their load when
frightened by regurgitating their last
meal so the extra weight won't hinder
their take -oft
By the time I arrived, the turkey
vulture was in the air. It was then we
could see that it must have been molt
ing — the time when the birds shed
their old feathers to make way for
new ones. There were gaps in its
wings where feathers had fallen out
and had not yet been replaced.
Barbara, in the meantime, had gotten
her camera, and was able to take a
few shots for the record.
I'm sure most of you have seen
turkey vultures on the mainland, per-
haps on your way south. Usually you
start to see them from New Jersey on
down. Here on Long Island, it seems
they're becoming a bit more abun-
dant. Years ago it would have been
quite unusual to see a turkey vulture.
I attribute their increase to the num-
ber of deer killed on our highways.
We have made an ideal situation for
the vultures to stay around and feast
on dead carcasses along the road.
Turkey vultures need thermals or
moving air to fly. I can remember,
when we were camping down south
years ago, seeing turkey vultures
roosting in a big tree in back of our
campsite. There must have been 25 or
30 of them spending the night there.
When we got up in the morning they
were still there. As a matter of fact
they didn't move until the sun rose
and warmed things up enough to cre-
ate thermals. Then, one by one, the
vultures took off, each one catching
some part of their newly created
transportation system. Slowly they
rose, spiraling upward, and then drift-
ed off for a day's shopping.
We're told they find their meals
partially by sight and partially by
smell. Experiments have proved the
smell theory. Researchers hid a car-
cass under some brush so it was not
visible from the ground
or the air, yet a turkey
vulture, with its keen
sense of smell, was able
to home in on it and go
directly to the dead ani-
These masters of
the sky give the
impression of
floating on air.
As I already men-
tioned, the largest member of the vul-
ture family, which some of you might
be familiar with is, the California con-
dor. This bird was almost extinct, but
through conservation measures and
some very technical rearing of young
from eggs, it has been reestablished in
the West as master of the sky. We'll
probably never see a California con-
dor on our East Coast. But the next
time I go to California, my eyes will
be searching the skies for this largest
of the soarers and, who knows, per-
haps I'll be able to see one.
The members of the vulture family
are a joy to see. They've been around
for a long, long time. Archaeologists
can vouch for that, as they've found
remains of vultures that lived some 65
million years ago. So keep looking up
and, sooner or later, maybe you'll get
to see this master of the sky.