For those tweets that might be interested, I found a Turkey Vulture in Port
Alberni, mid-Vancouver Island on the late date of January 21.

Apparently the cold and snowy conditions over much of the island forced the
bird to relocate from its haunt. It was first seen flying but a little
patience paid off as the bird landed atop a tall Hemlock. It did not remain
there long enough to position myself for a photo but it appeared to have an
interest in the area. It relocated to someone's backyard and landed in a
tree and was a mere 4 metres above the ground. The landowner came out to
converse, he may have thought I was investigating his yard and house
suspiciously but when I pointed to my camera and binocs, he seemed to
understand. After a pleasant talk with the landowner, I learned that fish
guts were thrown into the backyard under the tree that the vulture has
perched in. I seized the opportunity to photograph a vulture with a
background of snow and waited patiently to see if it would descend on the
rotting fish.

The vulture was obviously interested in the fish and perhaps had smelled it
from above. It kept changing its footage on the branch and was very alert
(changing head postion frequently). I waited quite a while before I
realized that there was a good reason for the vulture's extreme patience.
There was an orange cat feeding on the fish remains. The vulture looked on
with apparent interest. I wondered what might happen next. Where is Marty
Stouffer when you need him?
The vulture was much larger than the cat but did not make any attempt to
scare the cat. After the cat retreated, the vulture finally pounced. I
then had the bird in full frame, on the ground, gulping salmon steaks.
Unfortunately, it did not remain there long. A rather dark, red-tailed hawk
flew in and presumably, the vulture felt insecure on the ground as the hawk
approached and returned to flight, not to be seen again. At this time, as I
followed the flight of the vulture, I also noticed a few glaucous-winged
gulls flying about that may too have been lured in by either the smell or by
the sight of the feeding vulture.

All of these interactions made me wonder: who has the keenest sense of
smell? Did the vulture actually smell the fish when it was flying about? I
know my own nose certainly could not detect any odour, besides, my sense of
smell is much less acute on cold wintery days. Wouldn't this also be the
case for the vulture? Did the gulls and the hawk also smell the fish, but
arrived later because their olfactory organs are less acute or did they
arrive due to visual acuity? Perhaps they saw the vulture feeding, I know
gulls respond very quickly to the sights of other birds (or humans) feeding.
Maybe the hawk was interested in the cat? I didn't see the hawk feed on
the salmon but it was later joined by another hawk. I didn't stay around
long enough to find out.

Anyway, all this to say that a simple act of composting or throwing out
waste can provide us with interesting wildlife-watching opportunities.

Cheers,


Don Cecile

Port Alberni, Vancouver Island, BC, CANADA
eMAIL: dcecile at cln.etc.bc.ca