How many Birds?

Black Vulture

The sun was shining this morning and we decided to take a road trip to Lexington, KY. McDonald's had about 8 cars in line, so we passed it by. Wendy's only had 2 cars, but only one person was working inside and he said it would take a while before he could get to us. We finally went into Thornton's for breakfast, which ruined my WeightWatcher's count for the day.

Black Vultures basking in the sun

 It was about 8:45 when we arrived at Jacobson's Park and all the Black Vultures were still on the ground. Are they juveniles who can't fly yet? If it's too early, why aren't they perched in a roosting tree? None of this seemed to bother them at all. They barely looked at us as we walked by.

Black Vulture - white wing tips

It was almost 11 am before we saw many vultures in the air. We submitted 34 Black Vultures to eBird, but it certainly felt like we saw more than that. When they all lifted up, I tried to take a photo but they were too far away to get the impact. Of course, we saw Turkey Vultures too, but not as many, and none on the ground. One of those soaring Turkey Vultures ended up being an Osprey!

Goose Family

When we arrived we saw this nice little goose family, walking down to the lake for their morning swim. As we began to walk down the lake edge ourselves, there were more geese. 4 + 13 + 27 + 30...You get the idea. I usually just estimate the numbers of birds we see, but I actually counted this time and submitted 173 Canada Geese to eBird!! They were everywhere on the bank. An hour or so later, they all moved into the lake for a swim too. I may need to check my new boots this evening to see if there is goose poop on them.

Common Grackle

I didn't count the Common Grackles after this guy gave me the evil eye, but I submitted 150, which may have been a little low.

Killdeer - broken wing act

 Killdeers nest right out there on the ground. Their eggs can be hard to see even though they are completely exposed. If something (like people) get too close, the adult will run squawking in the other direction, pretending to have a broken wing to distract any potential predators. The playground at the park was closed, but as we walked by, someone said, "want to see the Killdeer?" We approached cautiously, and this bird flopped around like she was  injured, just like the book says! We did not approach any closer, not wanting to disturb her. Under"normal" circumstances, they would never have laid eggs on the playground, but since there have been no people for months, I guess they thought it would be a nice place for children.

Killdeer in flight

On the other side of the lake, we must have see 5-6 of them flying overhead, calling ki-dee, ki-dee!

Killdeer - red eyering

 And this one landed close enough to see his red-eyering. Many birds get red eyes when they are old enough to breed, but most eye-rings are white or buff colored.

Mallard Mama and ducklings

There weren't large numbers of Mallards, but these babies were so cute I couldn't resist. I was disappointed (the polite word for it) by the amount of trash left on the sides of this otherwise lovely lake. OK, 'nuff said.

Mississippi Kite

I've seen reports of a pair of Mississippi Kites at Veteran's Park in Lexington, so we headed there next. I've never been there before and didn't know exactly where to look. The open areas were all mowed short, and the wooded areas were full of dirt-bikers. Surprisingly, 3-4 different walkers saw our binoculars and asked if we were looking for that "Mississippi" bird. We looked where they indicated, but didn't see anything. One guy said, "Look for Earl, with a camera and tripod," and right then Earl walked up. He had wonderful photos of the pair already. After we watched one of them soaring for a long time without flapping, he took us where they have been seen working on a nest. No luck again. But it was great to see one flying at least. We used to have a pair in St. Matthews, nearby, but they haven't come back in the last couple of years. Believe it or not, when I got home, I saw an email from a person I know in St. Matthews, and they are seeing kites with nesting materials again!!

Vulture Visitors

Anyone who has followed my blog for long knows that I love vultures. I first saw them at the Falls of the Ohio, and love telling our visitors more about vultures than they ever want to know. At Raptor Rehab, we have two Turkey Vultures among our educational birds, and the wild vultures often come to  visit. The first time I saw this, I panicked, thinking that EO had escaped from his cage! How many vultures do you count in the trees above the Center?

Black Vultures are smaller than Turkey Vultures, with a 5' wingspan instead of 6'. They have black heads, of course, and a white patch at the tip of each wing. Their tails are shorter, and they have to flap more often than the Turkey Vultures, but they are still good fliers.

They don't have a good sense of smell, but find their food with their excellent eyesight. While a Turkey Vulture can find food by smelling it through the trees, the Black Vulture tends to hunt in river valleys, lowlands and open areas where they have a better field of vision. When dead fish wash ashore at the Falls of the Ohio, the Black Vultures descend for the feast. Black Vultures watch Turkey Vultures to follow them to a carcass found by their sensitive sense of smell. Then the Black Vultures chase them away from the meal. Black Vultures have also been known to actually kill newborn calves.

Baby vultures are cute and fluffy, just adorable! Since their parents don't actually build a nest, people find them on the ground and assume that they have been abandoned by their parents, when the parents are just out looking for a nice smelly carcass. Thinking they are saving these cute little birds, the people take them home, and the bird becomes "imprinted" on people. In other words, the chick think it's a person, and looks to people for food, help, etc. In a few months, of course, they are no longer cute little chicks, but full grown Black Vultures.

This fall we received two such imprinted Black Vultures at the Raptor Rehab Center. They are perfectly healthy, but can't be released into the wild because they really don't understand how to be wild birds. Vultures have bad reputations as a general rule, since they scavenge carrion. But Black Vultures have worse reputations than Turkey Vultures as they tend to be more aggressive.  All vultures will bite, and our Turkey Vultures don't like me. Our directors are trying to find another licensed raptor center that would like to have a nice imprinted Black Vulture for their program, but so far we've had no interest. John decided to put jesses on them this week to start the "manning down" process, and I got to help!  As you can see, I was very excited to work with this bird! It didn't bite me even once, although our director reminded me that they get more bitey when they start producing hormones.

So if any of you know of a LICENSED rehabilitator who would be interested in adding a Black Vulture to their cast of birds for educational programs, please get in touch with Raptor Rehabilitation of Kentucky, Inc.

Harvest Moon

Each month has a name for the full moon. The skies have been clear, and I see the moon will soon be full again. The Full Harvest Moon is the full Moon that occurs closest to the autumn equinox. In two years out of three, the Harvest Moon comes in September, but in some years it occurs in October. At the peak of harvest, farmers can work late into the night by the light of this Moon. Usually the full Moon rises an average of 50 minutes later each night, but for the few nights around the Harvest Moon, the Moon seems to rise at nearly the same time each night. I'll have to try for a photo of it this year.

Although many birds have migrated out of our area, others are coming here to spend the winter. The Ky. Bird Listserv has reported the last of the Hummingbirds (almost) and the first of the Juncos and White Throated Sparrows arriving. Our Red Shouldered Hawks will stay around as long as they can find food. Red leaves indicate that the cholorphyll factories have shut down for the winter, so the red colors are now visible. I love seeing leaves backlit by the sun....

...or outlined against the blue October sky. I think October has the bluest sky of the entire year. Don't you? I notice that it gets dark much earlier already, part of Autumn that I don't enjoy. Now that I'm retired, I don't have to get up and go to work in the dark any more, thank heavens!

Of course, orange is a favorite fall color too, and not only in leaves and pumpkins! I'm not seeing as many butterflies as a few weeks ago though. Our garden is about bloomed out for the season, and we put the netting over the creek to keep out dead leaves and pine needles which are falling rapidly now. Sometimes the leaves sound like rain when they fall. Raptor Rehab took some birds to Bernheim's ColorFest this weekend. Brewster here wasn't impressed at all, and slept most of the day. He did thank us for perching him in the shade though. Click on his picture for an enlargement. His facial feathers look almost like hair around his eyes.

Wonder if he would have been interested in this little mole we found on the ground? It seemed undamaged, but it was dead already. The Vultures appreciate food that is already dead. I came upon this group of Black Vultures cleaning up a deer carcass along the road to Creasey Mahan Nature Preserve.

Children think Vultures are nasty because they eat dead stuff. We always remind them that they eat dead stuff too, it's just wrapped in plastic and comes from Kroger's instead of the roadside! In fact, if we offered them live meat to eat, they would be even more grossed out!

International Vulture Awareness Day

At the Falls of the Ohio State Park, in Clarksville, IN/Louisville, KY,  the vultures are full time residents, putting on a show for anyone who arrives between 9:30 and 10:00 on a sunny morning.  As the sun shines on the fossil beds, the warm air currents invite the vultures roosting in a nearby tree or electric tower to rise up into the air for the day's hunting. 

When the fish are spawning, however, the vultures may choose to ignore that invitation, and just eat the fish that couldn't get around the dam.  Silver carp 4 feet long are just too yummy to pass up, and the vultures feast till they are stuffed.

We have both Black Vultures and Turkey Vultures on the fossil beds.  The Black Vultures will chase away a Turkey Vulture to get a tasty morsel of fish.  Sometimes the Black Vultures look like a convention of funeral directors to me.

Those early morning visitors get a real treat when the vultures fly at our eye level along the deck of the Interpretive Center.  It's a challenge to get a clear picture when they fly so close and so fast.  This is a wonderful opportunity to teach youngsters the value of vultures.  They are amazed when they realize that a Turkey Vulture's wings may be longer than their father is tall.

The vultures all appreciate the importance of cleanliness, and will perch on the railroad trestle to sunbake any remaining bacteria.  The railroad bridge was built in 1870, so many generations of vultures have posed like this in between the train crossings.

Black Vultures are particularly intelligent, I think.  One morning, a red ball floated downstream, and landed on our beach at the Falls.  A group of curious Black Vultures decided to check it out.  One crept up on the ball and pecked it.  As the ball moved, they all jumped back.  Then another Vulture snuck up on the ball from the other side and pecked it again.  And once again they all moved when the ball did.  The birds looked like soccer player in their black uniforms, and since the World Cup was going on, we called this the Vulture World Cup.  All we needed was one bird with white stripes to act as the referee!

I also volunteer at the Raptor Rehabilitation Center of Kentucky, Inc. , and was delighted to see the Black Vulture chicks in the pen.  What cuties they are in their fuzzy brown feathers!  The chicks squabble over a piece of rat, reaching under each other's wings to steal it away, or tugging it back and forth.  A few weeks later, the fuzzy feathers are gone, and we have to move the adult Turkey Vultures into a different cage.  The young Black Vultures, which aren't even fledged yet, are eating the food intended for the Turkey Vultures. 

These wonderful birds helped me become a Certified Interpretive Guide as the theme for my official presentation.  During lunch break at Bernheim, I couldn't resist going out to the prairie to take some bird photos, and I especially like pictures of the soaring Turkey Vulture.  Only when I got home, did I realize the Vulture shared the sky with a silver jet.  I ask you, which ones enjoyed themselves more - the vulture or the people in the plane?

Many of my blogger buddies will be posting articles on the vultures they know and love, since this is  International Vulture Awareness day.  Just click http://www.ivad09.org/wp/ to see the list.  Have fun!

Big Sit at the Falls of the Ohio

The Beckham Bird Club in Louisville, joined The Big Sit sponsored by Bird Watchers Digest yesterday. Our club sat at the Falls of the Ohio, in a circle made from an orange extension cord, (clever, I thought) from 9 am to 6 pm. The Falls are a good place for bird watching in general, since it has shore and water birds along the Ohio River, woodland areas for forest birds, an area with feeders, and the possibility of seeing various raptors. The Falls has resident Peregrine Falcons and Ospreys.

By the time Dick and I arrived at 3 pm, the hot sun (a record 87 degrees) made the water sparkle like millions of diamonds. Very pretty, but also very difficult for birding. I just purchased a new broad brimmed birding hat, and baptized it at the Big Sit. Our group recorded 44 species till then, but no raptors at all. Some watched across the water through scopes, but hikers on the fossil beds scattered the few birds crazy enough to come out in the heat. Others watchers turned towards the woods with binoculars. Hurricane Ike blew the tops out of many trees, and we gazed hopefully at the bare limbs. The only ducks we saw were Mallards (pronounced Ma-llard with a French accent - it makes them feel special.) Even the vultures had gone someplace else. Overall, it was not an encouraging time. We weren't allowed to count the Great Brown-tailed UPS birds (you've seen it - big, silver body, and brown tail) that flew over constantly during the afternoon.

Then, out of the blue, a huge kettle of Black Vultures filled the sky, wheeling and soaring overhead. Of course, we scanned them, hoping to see a not-Vulture in the crowd. I see something white, but it isn't a wingtip. It's a tail. The bird turns a bit more. Now I see what looks like a white head. Let's see, large, dark body, white tail, white head -

omigosh! IT'S A BALD EAGLE!!!

I start to shout and jump around, unable to describe where the bird can be seen, but fortunately the other Beckham people are good birders, and they quickly find it too. Corroboration! Now, I'll admit, I pulled this picture from some older files. I wasn't fast enough yesterday to take a picture of our Eagle on the wing. As it passed behind the Interpretive Center, and reappeared on the other side, we saw another large group of birds in a straggling V formation. Sandhill Cranes! someone shouts. Sorry, not this time. I did not know that Cormorants travel in big Vs, but that's what they were. Later the Cormorants landed on the river for a little snack and to spend the night.

When we packed it up for the day, our total species count was a round 50. Click the link to see what species we spied. We did finally see the Peregrine and a Red Tailed Hawk. The Osprey decided to stay at his favorite fishing grounds downstream apparently. Ah well, there's always next year.