Hi, Tweets - follows an official report for the Olympic Vulture Study in 1998

1998 saw turkey vultures arrive in record numbers at our Salt Creek
monitoring site on Washington state's northern Olympic coast. A grand
total of 2,092 vultures crossed the Strait of Juan de Fuca by early
October, with still more enjoying an extended stay at Rocky Point,
southwest of Victoria. As of 22 October, 32 turkey vultures were still at
Rocky Point. As reported on Tweeters, kettles of vultures were seen by
several observers over various districts in and around Seattle and points
south. The large flocks that we see come into Salt Creek, often 200-400
birds at a time, obviously break up into smaller groups as they continue
their migration south.

We are often asked where the vultures go. It's a difficult question to
answer specifically since, at present, tagging studies are not being done
at the northern edge of turkey vulture ranges, either here nor in the
midwest (at least, not that I've heard). There are turkey vultures that
overwinter near Victoria and they are occasionally seen here and there
through Oregon and Washington during the winter. They can always be seen
in California during the winter months. So, our vultures do, indeed, go
south, but whether they stop along the way or are on a direct route to
South America is anyone's guess.

Lucky Peak, near Boise, Idaho, had a record-breaking turkey vulture count
also this year with 1151 birds since 24 August. In southwestern Oregon,
Dutchman's Peak's 1997 turkey vulture total was 4,600 with the median date
of passage 29 September (their highest single-day count of 713 birds was 5
October). The Kern River Valley area in central California has been
getting ~28,000 turkey vultures in basically the same time period as the
rest of us: late Sept/early Oct. So, vulture numbers build up dramatically
as they move to the south.

Red-tailed hawks were also seen in the largest numbers ever: 65. Most of
the other raptor species are seen each year, either migrants or locals, but
in very small numbers. Following is a list of 1998 raptors seen at Salt
Creek:

Turkey Vulture 2,092
Osprey 4
Bald eagle 11
Northern harrier 8
Sharp-shinned hawk 9
Cooper's hawk 1
Red-tailed hawk 65
Merlin 5
Peregrine falcon 2
Unidentified raptor 10

Total raptors 2,207


Thanks to those who came to visit or who came out to help us count.
Saturday, 26 September (as reported earlier) was quite exciting with over
1,100 turkey vultures in three hours. We needed that extra help!

The Olympic Vulture Study was funded in 1998 by the Northwest Ecolocial
Research Institute, the James L. Baillie Memorial Fund of Bird Studies
Canada with funds raised through the annual Baillie Birdathon, and several
private donations. The hand-out brochure was funded by the Washington
Ornithological Society.

Submitted by: Diann MacRae, Coordinator - tvulture at halcyon.com