Saturday 29 September 2012

Turkey Vultures in Waterloo

While on my way to check Laurel Creek for migrating waterfowl I was surprised to notice a large flock of Turkey Vultures flying over head.
I immediately stopped to look, tell my local birding friends, and search for Black Vultures. I didn't find any Black Vultures but it was still very neat to see so many birds - but unfortunately they quickly dispersed going South West.

So I continued on my way to Laurel Creek where I didn't see anything too interesting.

This Sharp-shinned Hawk buzzed the roosting blackbirds:

I decided to move on to check on the roosting gulls. While searching the flock I noticed a large flock of birds a couple kilometers to the South. I quickly realized that the Turkey Vultures had returned (or a new flock was moving through) so I told some locals and continued to search the gulls.

I found 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull trying its best to hide behind a Herring Gull:

The Turkey Vultures didn't seem to be moving in any general direction so I decided to chase them down.
Check out this short clip to get an idea of how many there were:

I quickly caught up to them and was happy to note that they were roosting. One tree had about 50 birds in it!


More and more birds crashed into the trees, literally, and many would fly out of the large trees whenever a decent gust swayed the trees! 

This photo was with my point and shoot - they look really far away, but they really very close!
I'll be scouring these photos to see if there any Black Vultures! 

Also of note, I reached 1400 kilometers on my bike today! I hope to reach 2000 before the year ends!




Some nice fall colours were at Laurel Creek: