I enjoy reviewing the counts from the various raptor watch sites around
the state. I'd like to know what constitutes safe dates for migrating
black and turkey vultures. Most of the count sites are not recording
vultures, I assume because birds being seen are locals and do not or
have not yet begun to migrate. This question has been on my mind for
over a month now. We have a mixed vulture roost of 100-120 most winters
within 300 yards of our house.
On Friday, October 15, coincident with a strong series of storms
passing through Fairfax and Loudoun counties, a number of my National
Wildlife Federation colleagues and I walked out of our headquarters at
4:15 PM in Reston to find a cloud of vultures riding a thermal above our
office park as the storms approached. The kettle was similar to the
great migration of vultures and other raptors I've seen on the Costa
Rican east coast in late October and early November.
The kettle of vultures-- both species hung above our building at
500-700 ft and then rose up to perhaps 1200-1500 and partly disappeared
in the clouds. Just as the rains hit, the birds split from the thermal
and headed ENE in a straight line. Migrants or locals?
I have a series of photos of this kettle of vultures taken by one of my
co-workers here. I can count 198 birds in the kettle. Other birds--
perhaps as many as 40-100 more, were outside of the photo.
Craig Tufts
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