Subject: August turkey vulture report - long
Date: Sep 2 07:26:29 1999
From: Diann MacRae - tvulture at halcyon.com


Hi, Tweets

This will be the last report for a while since we will be heading out to
Salt Creek - our eighth year!! - about mid-month. But please continue to
send reports; they are still needed and will still be recorded in the totals.

Last month, I commented on a supposed turkey vulture catching a ground
squirrel, carrying it to a height, and then dropping it, etc. After many
message exchanges here and around the country it has generally been decided
that the bird was a zone-tailed hawk that did the carrying. It can fly
very much like a turkey vulture and, possibly, in poor light, the banded
tail would not show. Such are the stories, anyway, that get bandied about.
I just could not accept for a minute that any self-respecting turkey
vulture could get a grasp on a live, kicking squirrel and carry it
anywhere. Although . . . it might be nice, considering I have about 12
squirrels that frequent my yard. Back to vultures.

Turkey vulture sightings for the month of August, 1999, in British
Columbia, Washington, and Oregon:

02 -- 1 over Seabird Island, B.C. (near Agassiz); 1 at Derby Reach Regional
Park, B.C.
04 -- 1 at I-90 milepost 62; 1 east of Cle Elum; 3 north of the Megler
Bridge over the Columbia; 1 30 miles south of Raymond
05 -- 1 soaring over Johnsons Landing, B.C.
06 -- 1 near Burlington; 1 on the Long Beach peninsula; 4 circling east of
Reardan, Spokane County
07 -- 1 west of Cashmere; 3 at Johnsons Landing, B.C.
08 -- 1 in the Skokomish Valley; 1 north of Shelton; 1 south of Monroe; 9
soaring over the Nanaimo river Estuary, B.C.; 1 in south Cle Elum; one
young bird at a nest site in Clallam County
11 -- 1 south of Hells Gate in the Fraser River Canyon, B.C.; 1 over the
water at Friday Harbor
13 -- 2 soaring over North Bend, B.C.
14 -- 1 near SR20 and US101
16 -- 6 at the Chehalis Wildlife Refuge
20 -- 1 at Langley, B.C.; 1 immature southwest of Littlerock; 3 in trees on
Orcas Island with a deer skeleton nearby; 1 south of Morton
21 -- 1 at Chehalis Wildlife Refuge; 1 over Stuart Island in the San Juans;
1 at Grand Coulee; 1 north of Stanwood
22 -- 1 east of Mt. Vernon; 3 at the north end of Camano Island; 2 (1
adult/1imm) at Littlerock; 1 north of Chehalis; 1 at Langley, B.C.; 1 at
Gibsons, B.C.
23 -- 6 at the Tierra Del Mar area south of Tillamook, Oregon, with one
gliding over the beachgrass like a harrier (vultures like to do that,
too!); 1 east of Anacortes; 1 at the UW Marine Biology Station on San Juan
Island; 1 immature near the NAS on Whidbey Island; 5 or 6 on the carcass of
a black bear cub near the train tracks near Agassiz (?) B.C.
25 -- 8 on Vancouver Island in ca. 250 km
26 -- 2 east of Aggasiz, B.C.
27 -- 1 east of Gibsons, B.C.; 14 orbiting the Willapa Harbor Airport west
of Raymond; 1 north of Stanwood; 2 at Lantzville, B.C.; 3 over Hylebos
Creek; 4 at Longview; 2 soaring over a dead thing at the Battleground exit;
7 very high over the Columbia River near Portland Intl. Airport, Oregon; 3
south of Portland; 3 north of Salem, Oregon; 5 at Mill Town, Oregon; 11 at
Sisters, Oregon
28 -- 34 spiraling south over Medford, Oregon; 2 north of Enumclaw; 1 at
Friday Harbor; 9 soaring over open desert country south of Sisters, Oregon;
5 along the Deschutes River at Warm Springs, Oregon; 1 dead on the road
near a dead coyote :-( on the east slope of Mt. Hood, Oregon; 2 at Sandy,
Oregon; 4 north of Orchards; 7 at Longview; 2 over the Nisqually Flats; 2
over the Kent Valley; 8+ along I-90 going to Portland
29 -- 1 following the shoreline at Gibsons, B.C.
30 -- 3 at Grand Coulee
31 -- 2 behind Chief Joseph Dam, Bridgeport with 1 landing and stirring up
all the shorebirds

The real migration starts this month; be sure to keep looking up. Last
year, we had 1,100+ turkey vultures fly into Salt Creek County Park during
a period of three hours on September 26th.

Thanks so much to everyone sending records to me or posting turkey vulture
sightings on Tweeters; it is very much appreciated. Believe me, these
birds are awesome!!

Cheers, Diann
Diann MacRae
Olympic Vulture Study
22622 - 53rd Avenue S.E.
Bothell, WA 98021 USA
tvulture at halcyon.com