svihla@evax0.eng.fsu.edu (04/14/91)
I live in an area which is close to a couple of fairly substantial wood stork colonies, but I hadn't ever been really positive I'd seen one. I drove out along a highway this afternoon to try to find a lake where I'd heard they could be found. I couldn't get to the lake - the highway ran very close to it, but the dirt road leading to it was flooded so I headed back without a sighting. As I was driving back along the highway, I saw an ungainly profile soaring high overhead. By the size of the bill, it had to be either a pelican, an ibis, or a wood stork, and when I looked at it through the binoculars, it did indeed turn out to be a wood stork. The bill was huge, the front part of the body was white, and the back half (trailing edges of wing, etc.) were dark. It eventually came down low enough for me to get a really good look at it, and any doubts as to its identity were resolved. My question concerns what happened next. The stork peeled off and headed up high again, but was at that point, the only bird I saw. Soon thereafter, multiple silhouettes appeared over head, wheeling past each other in great, lazy circles. There were two (2) turkey vultures (tiny red heads, two-toned bodies), three (3) black vultures (tiny head, white patches at wing tips), a total of four (4) wood storks, and at least three (3) different kind of hawks which I'm no good at identifying. They soared together for five minutes or more, before they went their separate ways, leaving an empty sky behind. Is it common for that many birds of different species to soar together in close proximity? For lack of a better term, I'd call it a soaring frenzy - they all appeared and disappeared at about the same time.
jwp@silvertone.Princeton.EDU (Jamey Pritchett) (04/15/91)
Funny thing ... I just saw a similar thing this morning: a Great Blue Heron and a Turkey Vulture circled around together for a few minutes until the heron decided to come down and go fishing. James Pritchett jwp@silvertone.Princeton.EDU
grp@Unify.com (Greg Pasquariello) (04/16/91)
In article <1991Apr14.003228.18113@mailer.cc.fsu.edu>, svihla@evax0.eng.fsu.edu writes: > > > I live in an area which is close to a couple of fairly substantial > wood stork colonies, but I hadn't ever been really positive I'd seen one. > I drove out along a highway this afternoon to try to find a lake where > I'd heard they could be found. I couldn't get to the lake - the highway > ran very close to it, but the dirt road leading to it was flooded so I > headed back without a sighting. As I was driving back along the highway, > I saw an ungainly profile soaring high overhead. By the size of the bill, > it had to be either a pelican, an ibis, or a wood stork, and when I > looked at it through the binoculars, it did indeed turn out to be a wood > stork. The bill was huge, the front part of the body was white, and the > back half (trailing edges of wing, etc.) were dark. It eventually came > down low enough for me to get a really good look at it, and any doubts > as to its identity were resolved. My question concerns what happened > next. The stork peeled off and headed up high again, but was at that > point, the only bird I saw. Soon thereafter, multiple silhouettes > appeared over head, wheeling past each other in great, lazy circles. > There were two (2) turkey vultures (tiny red heads, two-toned bodies), > three (3) black vultures (tiny head, white patches at wing tips), a total > of four (4) wood storks, and at least three (3) different kind of hawks which > I'm no good at identifying. They soared together for five minutes > or more, before they went their separate ways, leaving an empty sky > behind. Is it common for that many birds of different species to > soar together in close proximity? For lack of a better term, > I'd call it a soaring frenzy - they all appeared and disappeared at about the > same time. Quite common actually. The various species of birds were probably making use of one of the stronger thermals in the area. Often, soaring birds are attracted to these thermals by other soaring birds. The benefit of the thermal is that it provides good lift for relatively little energy output. -- --- Greg Pasquariello grp@unify.com Unify Corporation Be good and never poison people