 Buzzard Flight Year It's not every day I see more than one Turkey Vulture. Nor is it every day I see three or four. How about seven? Nine? A dozen? How about two dozen? If anyone said that one fine day in the Cariboo I'd see a gathering of 24 Turkey Vultures, I would have thought them crazy. It was about as likely as me winning the grand prize lottery jackpot. Nevertheless, this June, it happened. (Not the part about winning the lottery – the part about the 24 Turkey Vultures!) I counted the Vultures in the field east of the house while they perched in the top of three fir trees. What were all the vultures doing? Well, this story began slowly. Upon first arriving at the house-sit for the summer, I took up my daily early morning position in the east pasture and noticed the field hosted about 16 cows. Many of the cows had very young calves. This was good. If the field contained the large herd of bulls that winters in the west pasture, my morning coffee would have been a little less relaxing. On the first morning nothing much happened. The second morning I sat in my chair listening and watching all sorts of birds and wildlife move around me when a cow that was lying down out in front of where I was sitting, got to her feet. Then a calf stood up. They moved toward the bush and as they walked I noticed the calf was quite unsteady on its feet and the cow had obvious tatters of bloody membrane hanging from her. I was witnessing a calf's first steps and its protective mother was encouraging the calf to leave the open field and seek shelter in the woods. The calf balked as it approached the edge of the trees, no doubt finding everything to be mysterious and threatening. Soon they were in with some of the other cattle. The next morning I went to the pasture and before I sat down, I saw a cow lying to the left side along the fence. I sat and looked through binoculars. Like the previous days cow, this one showed signs that it had just given birth. The calf this time seemed even more recently born and did not get to its feet. I was sitting in a nursery! Well that wasn't too bad all things considered. The next day I took a walk to the forested south side of the pasture and followed a road which parallels the property line. Golden-crowned Kinglets, Swainsons Thrush, McGillivray's Warblers and other birds filled the air with song. Where the path returned out to the east end of the pasture though, the reverie of the early summer morning took a strange turn. Through the trees I sighted a cow lying down in a most unusual manner. I approached slowly, keeping the dogs nearby. The cow was obviously dead and there were signs she was in the process of giving birth, no doubt the complications of calving, killed her. I had seen enough and as I wanted to keep the curiosity of the dogs to a minimum, I turned north and headed back to the open sunlight of the pasture. The following day I was sitting on the deck facing east when two Turkey Vultures hove into view. Turkey Vultures have an incredible sense of smell and are attracted to the gas given off by decaying animals. They circled the area without flapping and then moved south, no doubt in line with the scent of the dead cow. A little while later a few more Vultures showed up over the east pasture. They glided and tilted in the air silently keeping an eye on things below. The next day brought more Vultures. At one point I counted six, all circling, not yet coming to ground. After coffee I walked to the east end of the pasture to view the waterfowl and shorebirds at a pond in the neighbour's yard, and I made sure to keep some distance between the dogs and the dead cow, though I was curious to know if it had been bothered by any kind of wildlife. Four Turkey Vultures perched in the tall firs in the direction of the carcass. At the back of the pasture I saw the silhouette of what appeared to be a very narrow shouldered person peering over the high portion of the corner pasture. I put the scope up and stared at the figure. It wasn't a person, it was a Turkey Vulture sitting on a fence post. This was the first time I'd seen a Turkey Vulture in a position where it could be studied, and it was also the closest I'd been to one. As the dogs were ahead of me I was afraid the bird would quickly fly away, but it sat quite calmly. It scratched an ear a few times with a stiff looking pale foot and ruffled its feathers. With such a large ruff of feathers around the neck, and a small red head, the bird appeared to be making a bizarre fashion statement. There was an odd mark between the nostril and the eye, which I first mistook for the eye. The mark looked like a cinder smear with a white centre. The Vulture turned its head and had a similar mark on the other side. Behind the mark I made out the eye when the bird blinked. The white-tipped bill, bulged and appeared very sharp. Finally the vulture took wing and circled back toward the trees. Then I noticed the bird was not alone. Many other Turkey Vultures were perched in the poplar trees behind the spot where the first Vulture perched on the post. As the Turkey Vulture flew overhead going south I counted eleven more still in the trees. Without disturbing the perched birds I made a b-line for the edge of the east pasture. I wanted to see if the four Vultures I'd seen earlier were still there. They were! That made sixteen in all! My greatest flock yet was just seven. In the days that followed Turkey Vultures became a staple in the skies. A few evenings later I noticed an unusually large flock of them in trees to the east and went in that direction to count how many there were. I couldn't believe it - there were 24! There may have been an additional two birds in flight as well but I decided 24 was a nice round number. I wouldn't have believed that many Turkey vultures existed in the South Cariboo! Vulture activity has since died down but one or two still put in daily appearances. I don't know if any of the Vultures made it down to the carcass, though I do know that Eagles, Ravens and several carnivorous mammals obviously visited the site. So has this glut of Vultures siphoned off some of the marvel I feel for the mysterious birds? Not a bit. I still stop in my tracks and gaze in wonder when they appear. I am so impressed that I think the owners of the house should pick a name for their property - perhaps something along the lines of “Buzzard Boulder” or “Vulture Villa”. To e-mail Tom CLICK HERE To look at previous column CLICK HERE |
