[TN-Bird] Re: Heron nesting colonies and vultures

Wes,

Your description of vultures (perhaps Black) tearing windshield wipers 
and sun roof gaskets reminds me of something my wife and I learned from 
a wildlife rehabber in Blacksburg, VA two decades ago. 

At one point, the rehabber had in her care a male Black Vulture that had 
been found at a picnic area somewhere and brought in for care.  At the 
time of its capture, the vulture (later named Balthasar) was still in 
its downy phase and had appeared at the picnic area as a "weird chicken" 
walking around trying to untie people's shoelaces.  Of course, the bird 
became thoroughly imprinted on humans, and so some kind of life in 
captivity was the only choice.  Even after becoming an adult, it 
exhibited a curiosity for things it could pull with its bill, and it 
remained quite docile toward humans and interested in human-made objects.

Perhaps there is something about pullable or tearable human objects that 
attracts Black Vultures.  I would be interested to know if similar 
behavior has been observed in connection with non-human 
material--sticks, vines, twigs, or whatever.  These birds are intriguing 
and bear much watching.  My impression is that they tend to be more 
sociable toward their own species than are Turkey Vultures, but I have 
no firm evidence for suggesting this, only my hunch based on lots of 
observation.  (Of course, both species of vulture are observable by 
humans only in a narrow range of circumstances.  Like all living things, 
they live most of their lives in a privacy that we are seldom privileged 
to venture into.  And when we do, who's to say that we interpret things 
accurately?)

Don Miller
Greeneville, Greene Co., TN   

James, Wesley K. wrote:

>In reference to recent TN-Bird posts by Wallace and Charlie Muise
>regarding heron nesting colonies, I would like to encourage all
>observers of these sites to look for and note the presence of vultures
>in the vicinity of the colonies.  In recent years I have noted the
>presence of vultures (mostly black-possibly non-breeding sub-adults?) at
>several established heron nesting colonies in the Fort
>Loudoun-Tellico-Melton Hill-Watts Bar Reservoir areas.  While I have not
>observed any predation (eggs or fledglings) by vultures to date, at
>least one heron nesting colony in the Fort Loudoun-Tellico area where
>numerous vultures were present throughout the nesting season went from
>approximately 30 active nests to 0 over about a three year period.  I
>know that heron colonies do disperse and move around over time, however
>I suspect in this case that the presence and numbers of vultures may
>have influenced the success of this nesting colony.
>I am going to be more closely monitoring heron nesting colonies on local
>reservoir areas this year and I will post any observations of vultures
>or other factors that may be influencing nesting success.  I encourage
>all observers to do the same to help us determine if there might be some
>relationship between heron nesting colonies and vulture
>roosting/concentration areas.
> 
>As a sidenote, we have had several vulture "incidents" reported to us
>over the last couple of years which include the tearing off  (and
>possibly eating) of windshield wipers and sun roof gaskets on vehicles
>parked at fishing and boating access sites near Fort Loudoun Dam and the
>"consumption" of jetski seats on Watts Bar Reservoir.  It appears that
>black vultures are the primary culprit in these cases.
> 
>Wes James
>Lenoir City, TN
>Wesley K. (Wes) James, Wildlife Biologist
>Tennessee Valley Authority, Resource Stewardship
>Little Tennessee Watershed Team
>260 Interchange Park Drive
>Lenoir City, TN  37772-5664
>865-632-1312  Fax: 865-632-1313
>wkjames@xxxxxxx
> 
> 
>=================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER=====================
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>_____________________________________________________________
>     Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society
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=================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER=====================

The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with
first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation.
You are also required to list the count 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

_____________________________________________________________
     Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society
          web site at http://www.tnbirds.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp

_____________________________________________________________

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