Hi, Tweets

Following is the July 2002 turkey vulture report for Washington, British
Columbia, and Oregon:

most days -- Hwy 22/N Satus Road intersect, 1-2 birds
01 -- 1 at Hwy 109, Mi.19; 3 west of Mossy Rock; 1 at Hwy. 12, Mi. 91; 1
just east of Packwood; 2 over Gower Point beach, B.C.; 1 over JosephWhidbey
SP; 1-2 over Joyce
02 -- 1 adult scanning the beach near Gibsons, B.C.
03 -- 1 at Gibsons beach; 1 over the Sechelt airport, B.C.; 2-4 over the
beach at Gibsons, B.C.
04 -- ca. 10 at a time over Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park, B.C.
(Vancouver Island); 1 at Rabbitt Lake, B.C.; 4 sitting on a cedar near the
beach at Gibsons, B.C., all adults; 7 seen later in the day in the same area
05 -- 2 floating over Littlerock; several seen all day and feeding on fish
skeleton at Gibsons, B.C.; 2 south of Tillamook, Oregon; 2 near the Elwha
River; 2 at US 101/SR112
06 -- 1 along Hwy 101, northern part of Thurston County; individuals seen
all day at Gibsons, B.C.
07 -- 1 over Crescent Harbor on Whidbey Island (slightly over water!); 1
sitting on top of a cow's (dead) swollen abdomen, apparently waiting for a
coyote to start things; 1 at Hardy Canyon; 4 at Camas Creek; 7 in the cedar
by Gibsons, B.C., all seemed to be adults; 1 over downtown Tillamook,
Oregon; 1 over Joyce
08 -- 2 soaring high over eastern Sequim; 1 over downtown Tillamook,
Oregon; 8 at Gibsons, B.C.; 7 over Keats Island, B.C.
09 -- 11 devouring a dead seal, B.C.; 1 over the Sequim Bypass
10 -- 2 sitting at the edge of a small mud hole near Satus WRA; 3-7 seen
off and on most days for the rest of July in the Gibsons, B.C. area
11 -- 1 being hotly pursued by a sharp-shinned hawk (!) over Ocean Shores -
many steep dives, pulling up and rollovers, hard downbeats of big wings,
all by the turkey vulture. Must have been neat to see.
12 -- 4 over Money Creek Campground, US2
13 -- 1 circling downtown Mt. Vernon
14 -- 8 hunting together along Grandview Road
18 -- 1 over Cook Road
19 -- 6-7 massed around something on the ground in the Chehalis-Newaukum
Valley, Lewis County; 7 circling just west of Fat Smitty's
21 -- 1 over US101/SR20
22 -- 'some' turkey vultures over John's River
23 -- 1 on top of First Pump Peak, B.C.; 1 at Ridgefield NWR
26 -- 1 on Little Mountain, Mount Vernon; 3 near Remlinger Farms
27 -- 8-9 near Shuswap, B.C.; 2 north of Vernon, B.C.; 1 near Tepee
Trailhead, Columbia County; 2 riding the updrafts along the Wenaha Tucannon
Wilderness; 1 at Reifel Refuge, B.C.; 1 over Joyce; 1 catching thermals
with some swallows in Fall City
28 -- 1 over the Black River
30 -- 1 over western Sequim
31 -- 2 doing lazy circles over the Littlerock area; 1 over Joyce

Thanks for all the observations and for those that tried to separate adults
and juveniles - it isn't always easy in bad light or at a distance. It
won't be long before turkey vultures will be staging and getting ready to
head south. Some leave as early as late August with the bulk of our
northwestern birds moving out in mid-to-late September through the early
part of October. The migration can be impressive if one happens to spot a
large group.

Cheers, Diann
___________________________
Diann MacRae
Olympic Vulture Study
22622 - 53rd Avenue S.E.
Bothell, WA 98021
mailto: tvulture at vei.net
http://users.vei.net/tvulture/