V20 N42

Bird Droppings
Dispatches from the nation’s birdwatching capital… by Seymore Thanu
Cape May hosts some special gift of
the season every month. November
means vultures, more specifically,
the great rafts of migrating Turkey
Vultures that dominate the sky over
the Hawk Watch Platform. Those other late
seasons have their hopes pinned on seeing
a Golden Eagle. Not me. My sights are calibrated
for vultures, wobbling across the sky,
like dark bodied, silver winged clipper ships.
Some people consider them loathsome.
Their dietary focus on carrion seems ghoulish
to many. But without vultures, all those
road-killed deer would turn roadsides into an
ungulate necropolis. Standing over some carcass,
the vulture is an unlovely hunch-backed,
shuffling apparition. But when the broadwinged
birds take to the air, they move with
poetic grace. Tight-rope walkers in the sky.
Daunted by the 12 miles of thermal
impoverished bay, 100s of vultures may gather
over the lighthouse waiting for some bold
vulture to lead the way. Most choose to turn
north and circumnavigate the bay. And some
return to try it again under more favorable
winds. Vultures also make great bellwethers.
Their dark bodies and massed ranks catch
the eye. Scanning through their ranks, hawk
watchers are able to locate the smaller paler
hawks that are taking advantage of the vulture’s
thermal finding skills.
Despite their structural and behavioral
similarities, vultures are not ranked among
the birds of prey. North America’s three vul-
ture species, Turkey, Black and California
Condor are more closely related to storks
whose heads, like vultures, are featherless.
Condors have not been in New Jersey since
the last ice sheet left town but Black Vulture, a
southeastern resident, moved into our region
20 years ago and stick around all year.
Except for their red heads and horn-colored
bills, Turkey Vultures resemble the noble
wild turkey, but where turkeys strut, vultures
hop. Black Vultures have gray heads and short
tails. In mixed flocks the smaller size of Black
Vulture is immediately apparent as is its hurried
wing beat. Turkey Vultures are more
tranquil aloft, their wings uplifted as if moved
to prayer.
Roosting vultures may spread their wings
to absorb the sun’s rays. Highly thermal
dependent, on overcast days the birds may
not forage at all. It is the limited hours of winter
sunlight that sets the northern limits of the
vulture’s range. So if the skies are clear and
the winds northerly, why not saunter down to
the hawk watch and catch the vulture parade.
November 24, 2022 EXIT ZERO Page 31