Black Vulture at RBG Arboretum

[David Moffatt]

This morning, while doing my volunteer transect at the Arboretum,  I had a Black Vulture fly low over my head as it tried to evade pursuing American Crows. It flew from the Boathouse Marsh up and over the Nature Information Centre. The white inner primaries and very short tail provided easy identification in excellent light, and the bird was both chunkier and a more cumbersome flier than TUVUs. I checked any TUVUs I saw for the rest of the morning, but it was not seen accompanying them. 

As it seems too late for migration,  I wonder whether this is one of the birds reported more than a month ago, or a vagrant displaced by the recent wild weather in the central USA. 

Dave Moffatt 

[darl...@cogeco.ca]

Hi Dave

 

Black Vultures don’t really migrate in the same way as other raptors, although we do count them at the Niagara Peninsula Hawkwatch.  The records are still valuable, but I think that what we are really measuring is range expansion rather than migration in the traditional sense.

 

Sandy

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "HSA Nature Notes" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to hsa-nature-not...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/hsa-nature-notes/CAKm3nT749U9-2DAksD%2Bf4-s3oJ5F8xqiceZ7N2PRXfRPUTZuYg%40mail.gmail.com.