Hi All -
Ok, Monday's Turkey Vulture total came in officially at 64,171!!! Hawk
Statistician John Economidy reported that it not only blew away the single-day
record for Hazel Bazemore (41,132 on 10/19/2014), it eclipsed every SEASON
record except for 78,684 set in 2013. Given that the 2015 season total was
now at 69,064, that's pretty much a certainty that will fall.
Norm and I went out in the morning, looking for roosting vultures. We found
scattered groups in the Nueces River lowlands off CR 73, mostly perched
conspicuously on dead tree limbs. I suspected that there were many more either
perched on the ground on in lower level branches.
At about 9:45 am, we were on CR 77 heading toward the Nueces River plain when
the first vultures started taking flight. Within minutes there were lots of
little "fountains" or "geysers" of vultures popping up as far as I could see
along the course of the riverbed. It was pretty cool. After another 15
minutes or so, they started to group together and search for bigger thermals,
and the groups started moving west and south.
I had to drop Norm at the airport, so from that time onward I would
occasionally glance at the skies - pure blue with no clouds - I did not envy
the hawk counters at Hazel Bazemore that day.
Erik just walked in the door and announced "Today we blew away yesterday's
Turkey Vulture count - over 80,000!!!" Just one stream was over 27,000 birds
and took over an hour to pass by - can you IMAGINE what their necks and eyes
felt like after that?
Ho-lee-COW!!!
Clay Taylor
TOS Life Member
Calallen (Corpus Christi) TX
Clay.taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
-----Original Message-----
From: texbirds-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:texbirds-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Clay Taylor
Sent: Monday, October 26, 2015 10:16 PM
To: Texbirds <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [texbirds] Corpus Christi 50K Vultures - Tuesday liftoff?
Hi all -
Today featured wonderful winds out of the West and Northwest with blue skies.
Messing around in my yard during the morning, we saw lots of Turkey Vultures
that were obviously migrating through. In August and September, there are
always vultures visible to the hawk counters at Hazel Bazemore County Park, but
most of those vultures are "locals" that cruise back and forth during the
course of the day, only to return to roost in places like Pollywog Ponds and a
few cell phone towers along IH37. Today, they were heading West and
Southwest on a mission.
Norm Cavallaro and I went over to Hazel Bazemore to see how Dane, Kevin and
Erik were doing, and we spent a pleasant two hours watching kettles and streams
of TVs and BVs - some at long distances, others passing right overhead. There
were also smaller groups of Sandhill Cranes, Anhingas, White Pelicans, and Wood
Storks passing through. At about 4:50 we returned to my house and set up
chairs in my front yard, hoping that the streams of vultures would also contain
at least one Golden Eagle that I could add to my yard list.
Alas, no GOEA came through. However, the vulture flight turned EPIC!
Starting at about 5:30 and lasting until 6:25, the streams of vultures not only
intensified, they all came in at lower and lower altitudes. It was obvious
that they were losing lift as the air cooled, but they were determined to go as
far as they could. Eventually, there were hundreds of birds heading west
toward the Park, many of which were less than 100 feet above my house. It was
spectacular!
Erik did not get back to my house (Debbie and I are hosting him during the hawk
season) until almost 7:15pm. He said that the preliminary tally of vultures
had exceeded 50,000! The last hour totaled almost 30,000 birds!!
So, here is my question - where did all those vultures go to roost? We
honestly do not know whether to look for them on Tuesday morning 1) in the
trees along the Nueces River (like the Broad-wings do in September), 2) on the
ground in the farm fields to the west of 624 (Northwest Trail) like the
Swainson's Hawks favor, or perhaps 3) in the groves of trees along the borders
of those farm fields? Does anybody have definitive information as to where to
look?
Given that they will likely remain roosting until at least 8:30 - 9:00 am, I
plan on looking on Tuesday morning for vulture flocks. Once they start
getting up, it might be a massive liftoff! If any of you can make it to
Corpus Christi tomorrow morning, let me know and maybe we can coordinate our
search(es). This could be fun!
Clay Taylor
401-965-9064
TOS Life Member
Calallen (Corpus Christi) TX
Clay.taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:Clay.taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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