lbechtle@uceng.UC.EDU (laurie bechtler) (12/18/90)
Speaking of turkey vultures, I got my best ever view of them last week in Redwood Shores (S.F. bay area). There was a dead rabbit about 100 yards away from the most outlying strip of condos on the peninsula, where I was staying. I hadn't previously ever noticed any vultures around the area at all. Then one day I looked out the window and saw two of them on the ground. A jogger scared them off (although they didn't fly away until he was about 50 feet away), so I took the opportunity to go out and see what they were eating. After I went back inside, within half an hour the first two were back. One by one other vultures appeared until there were five of them on the ground, and two more circling. They wouldn't all eat at one time; two of them mostly sunned themselved with outspread wings. They walked around a little like that, looking amusingly vulture-ish. They were there at least two hours, a good part of which I spent watching from an upstairs window, through binoculars. When I was outside and they were circling low, I could really hear their wings making slow swishing noises as they beat. Fascinating. A question: did the new arrivals notice the kill independently, by sight or smell, or do they notice others of their kind circling and take that as a cue to check out the area? If the latter, is there some visual difference in the flight patterns for a vulture that is searching and one that has seen something interesting? Despite the fact that the tip of the peninsula is rather unattractive to humans, (muddy, being prepared for development, trash-strewn, with a smelly water treatment plant at the end and two high voltage lines running across it) there are lots of birds. Many wintering ducks, some great and snowy egrets, pelicans, and northern harriers.