FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] FW: Lewis County: Strange vulture occurence

["Raincrow" <raincrow@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I am howling at the thought of a kettle of vultures mistaking cabbage soup for 
a rotting carcass! Shades of Calvin and Hobbes! 
I wonder if it wasn't just a beautiful day for flying. I used to be a hang 
glider pilot (the buzzard being our patron saint), and cast a longing eye 
skyward many times yesterday as big thermals bubbled up out of the woods along 
my ridgetop...

Liz Singley 
Kingston [Roane Co.], TN
southariver


------- Original Message -------
From : Bill Pulliam[mailto:bb551@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent : 5/6/2007 10:44:22 PM
To : tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc : 
Subject : FW: [TN-Bird] Lewis County: Strange vulture occurence

Yesterday afternoon (05/05/07) a very odd thing happened at our place 
in western Lewis County. I stepped out on the back porch, and 
noticed a few Turkey Vultures circling high. As I stood there the 
flock grew to a kettle of about 2 dozen birds, and they began 
circling lower and lower. Within few minutes they were at and below 
treetop level, taking swoops barely above head height around the 
house, yard, and pond, passing very close to us at times. A few 
began alighting in some of the trees in the yard. They never seemed 
to find any food item, and a search didn't show any evidence of a 
fish kill in the pond. After about 15 or 20 minutes of this, they 
all began heading off to the north. Two of them flew up the road in 
front of the house, making a beeline right up the center of the road 
not more than 5 feet off the ground. Most of the vultures never 
landed on anything through all this.

I can't recall anything like this before. They were evidently not 
coming in for an evening roost, nor were they feeding. There were no 
Black Vultures in the mix. One off-the-wall thought occurred to 
me... Peggy had a crock pot outside on the back porch with her 
vegetable soup cooking, one of the major ingredients of which is 
cabbage. The soup is banished to the back porch because I object to 
the "aroma" of boiling cabbage in the house. Maybe the vultures 
mistook the smell of a pot of cabbage for the smell of a rotting 
carcass?

Whatever, it was a very strange experience!

Bill Pulliam
Hohenwald TN
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------------------------------
Assistant Moderator Andy Jones
Cleveland, OH
-------------------------------
Assistant Moderator Dave Worley
Rosedale, VA
__________________________________________________________

Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society
web site at http://www.tnbirds.org 
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EXCELLENT MAP RESOURCES
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Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif 
Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com 

_____________________________________________________________




=================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER=====================

The TN-Bird Net requires you to SIGN YOUR MESSAGE with
first and last name, CITY (TOWN) and state abbreviation.
You are also required to list the COUNTY in which the birds
you report were seen.  The actual DATE OF OBSERVATION should
appear in the first paragraph.
_____________________________________________________________
      To post to this mailing list, simply send email to:
                    tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
_____________________________________________________________ 
                To unsubscribe, send email to:
                 tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
            with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
______________________________________________________________
  TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society 
       Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s)
        endorse the views or opinions expressed
        by the members of this discussion group.
 
         Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
                 wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
                ------------------------------
                Assistant Moderator Andy Jones
                         Cleveland, OH
                -------------------------------
               Assistant Moderator Dave Worley
                          Rosedale, VA
__________________________________________________________
         
          Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society
              web site at http://www.tnbirds.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

                          ARCHIVES
 TN-Bird Net Archives at http://www.freelists.org/archives/tn-bird/

                  EXCELLENT MAP RESOURCES
Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp
Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif
Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com

_____________________________________________________________