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Graham
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Location: San Diego and DeTour, MI
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Where were the turkey vultures?
Where were the turkey vultures???
I’m probably being very foolish asking this question around April 1, but the mystery intrigues me.
Before I left LA Bay to head out to Isla Angel de la Guarda I walked up and down the beach and saw vultures everywhere, especially gathering around
any cleaned fish left on shore or hanging out on the cardóns above areas of freshly deposited trash.
But out on the big island, in two months, in an apparently very similar desert/coastal ecosystem, I didn’t see a single vulture. Not one! But I did
see ravens… lots and lots of very bold ravens, usually waiting for me to go hiking or kayaking so they could begin freely beaking around my campsite.
And several times I observed them engaged in aerial combat with nesting ospreys
Anyway, there are not many places in Baja where you won’t see a vulture in two months. In my new book I took a wild guess as to why this might be so,
but I’d appreciate any insight or suggestions… or if anyone knows of any research.
Thanks,
Graham
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Skipjack Joe
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Tell us your hypothesis and we'll tell you what we think.
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Graham
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I was convinced it was vampires. What do you think?
Graham
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Sharksbaja
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Ok Skip!
Vampiros?? No way, really? I thought they were a mainland Mexico animal. Do they hang around Baja?
My thinking is that of unavailable dead animals or rather , "available food". You say there are many ravens.
Perhaps the ravans are the dominate feeders on an otherwise isolated rock. Perhaps the lack of dead animals can be attributed to the lack of
scavengers, maybe also due to the fact that the island is mostly off-limits to
the general public. Drug runners rarely clean fish ya know.
There is that annual vulture get-together down near Loreto. We've seen them all down there. It's possible the locals were off the island during
"Semana Pajaro"
DON\'T SQUINT! Give yer eyes a break!
Try holding down [control] key and toggle the [+ and -] keys
Viva Mulege!
Nomads\' Sunsets
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Graham
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Vultures at LA Bay. At least a dozen here... maybe 13.
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Graham
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Whoops. Picture didn't post. Believe me there are a dozen on these cardons near La Gringa.
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Graham
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Let me see if I can get a photograph of one of these creepy Guardian Angel vampires to upload.
If this doesn't work, I'll try again tomorrow.
Graham
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Sharksbaja
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Graham, I'm curious. Why would vultures fear the nocturnal bat? Do they prey on them?
Still curious, but alas, I have jury duty manana. I'll check on this post later.
[Edited on 4-1-2008 by Sharksbaja]
DON\'T SQUINT! Give yer eyes a break!
Try holding down [control] key and toggle the [+ and -] keys
Viva Mulege!
Nomads\' Sunsets
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Graham
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Found this one reposed in its coffin after a busy night imbibing body fluids.
If this fanged beast doesn't post... then I'll definitely return to this tomorrow with a brain full of corpuscles...
Graham
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Iflyfish
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Be glad, really glad that they are not circling around you! Sometimes it is good not to see those things.
Iflyfish
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Mexitron
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Maybe a lack of water on La Guardia...?
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Pompano
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Maybe because there are no roads..?
I do what the voices in my tackle box tell me.
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Taco de Baja
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Maybe the thermals aren't as good on the island for cruising around looking for grub......?
Truth generally lies in the coordination of antagonistic opinions
-Herbert Spencer
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Osprey
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Keeping My Cool
They're big, black, ugly and they're up there every day. Zopilotes, Turkey Vultures. Also called Buzzards they are almost three feet long, six feet
of broad black wings, weigh about four pounds. As I lie comfortably in a lounge chair, Bloody Mary in hand, composing articles and stories for
magazines and the press, I can enjoy them, just overhead. I have always admired the birds, envied their aerial elegance, the exquisite freedom flight
accords them, a freedom I can never know. From time to time I have used the birds to color my stories about this part of Mexico. So far my
descriptions of the birds in flight have been impossibly bland, add little to the stories -- "the big, black birds wheeling, gliding on the thermals,
etc.,etc.....". Better to leave them out than to paint such a colorless scene. Fellow writers have failed to capture the majesty of the creatures
--"they wheel, soar, glide -- hover, hang like big kites...ya da, ya da, ya da...." I need to really watch them awhile; get to know them, pay
attention, find the words that may bring them to life, paint them against the sky with the same grandeur we lavish on the their cousins, the eagles.
If I tilt my lounge chair back a little I can watch them without moving a muscle. Today several birds are aloft just above my patio, the wind is
strong and gusty; a good day for observation. Now that I pay the proper attention I can see why the words fail. They are not just soaring, wheeling;
they are in constant motion. This wind is not a steady flow of cool air rushing from the beach, up this little bluff to my house. It is not a stream
of air, rather, it is great puffs; pulsing, softly now, a powerful gust, soft again, little short bursts, more gusts, a shoulder against an invisible
door. The birds are not possessed of a special kind of vision, some precognitive way to see the wind, anticipate the wind's wild vacillations,
changes taking place in tiny parts of seconds; all the birds' moves are adjustments--made at lightning speed, each subtle movement of muscle, bone and
feather in wondrous harmony.
These birds are not flying. Flying is flapping wings to propel the bird forward. Each vulture is making adjustments at incredible speed -- the
result allows the bird to stay aloft, in the same general area, without burning precious calories needed for great flapping movements of the wings.
As the wind gusts and wanes they fold the wrist of the wing, spread their primaries at the wing tips, fold and lower the broad tail feathers, smooth
the small coverts -- constantly rearranging the surfaces touched by the wind. At times they roll their bodies, tip both wings to decrease the lift;
in this attitude they slip downward and to the side, take up a new station a short distance away at the same height.
Now I can begin to understand what they are doing. The new and bigger question is "Why in the hell are they doing it?" The second Bloody Mary helps
me get closer. I let my mind and body drift aloft, enter the spirit of the black weavers. I imagine being buffeted by the wind gusts. I tighten my
small shrunken thumb, slightly folding a wing as the wind abates. Tiny muscles are now moving my wingtip primary feathers to stabilize my horizontal
attitude.
A breakthrough, a revelation. The big birds are using no more energy to make these miraculous adjustments than I do when I turn slightly in my
chair, toward the beach, to see a passing boat. Now some eduction is called for: these birds, just above my head, have been in the air all morning.
Since they have sharp eyes and an uncanny sense of smell (they can smell carrion from hundreds of feet in the air to a radius of five miles) they
would have discovered anything edible on the ground after the first few minutes. If we rule out this stationary routine as a part of mating, it can
only mean that the birds are up in the wind to regulate their body temperature and to conserve energy/calories. They eat on the average of two to
three times per month. It may be that they use less energy aloft, on the wind, than when at rest, roosting on the ground or on a cactus. On cold,
wet mornings I have seen them stretch their broad wings to catch the morning sun -- the same birds hold this Kodak Moment pose, let the breeze
dissipate the heat from their wings on July and August afternoons.
All this study has heated me up. I put down my glass, walked to the outdoor shower for a cool change of pace, walked cool and dripping back to the
lounge, resumed my studies. Now things are taking a very different perspective -- these birds were roosting, sensed the wind, HAD to go aloft to
conserve energy for as long as possible; to live another day to hunt for scarce roadkill. It's like they have a job. They dare not stay on the
ground, on the roost if there is an opportunity to conserve energy or body fat -- their lives depend on their being able to use the wind whenever and
wherever possible. This grand freedom I have so envied turns out to be a life-or-death injunction, not a flight of fancy.
Two of the beasts are now hovering very low, close to my position. They are c-cking their ugly, red heads to get a better look -- the eyes have a
nasty leer -- curiosity? Did we, however briefly, trade places? While my mind's eye floated with them, did they sense, if only for seconds, my
mystical intrusion, drop down to enter my cooler world? Could it now be envy?
I'll make sure tomorrow. I may bring out a little bucket of ice, make some more Bloody Mary's --- this time with real blood.
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Sharksbaja
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APRIL FOOLS!
DON\'T SQUINT! Give yer eyes a break!
Try holding down [control] key and toggle the [+ and -] keys
Viva Mulege!
Nomads\' Sunsets
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David K
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Here's one Graham!
(Neal Johns photo)
and here's one at L.A. Bay, photo'd in 2002:
[Edited on 4-3-2008 by David K]
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Graham
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Location: San Diego and DeTour, MI
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Thanks David. Good to see my red headed cousins.
Osprey, great writing. Wish I could capture the moment like that. But be careful about overdoing the Bloody Marys or you’ll start seeing double.
Sharks have a fun time at jury duty. Thanks for the suggestions. And thanks Taco, Pompano, and Mexitron – all good points.
Apart from a few isolated palm canyons, the island is certainly devoid of water, so much so that there are almost certainly no coyotes living there.
I’ll have to do a little research and see how much water a vulture needs say in comparison to a raven.
I’m sure the lack of food is not the answer. The island beaches are rich in carrion. Dr. Gary Polis and Michael Rose of UC Davis, who tragically died
along with three Japanese scientists when their boat overturned in LA Bay in March 2000, calculated that each yard of shoreline in the area receives
an average of 60 pounds of “detrital algae and animal carrion” each year. And it was hard for me to walk a mile under the cliffs or on the beaches and
not see a washed up sea lion, dolphin, or Humboldt squid, never mind all the dead birds and fish.
The island is very rugged, the high point is over 4000 feet and judging by all the high flying hawks and frigate birds, there were plenty of thermals
to stay aloft.
What is peculiar about Angel de la Guarda is the number of feral “vampire” cats out there… and judging by all their tracks they often were circling
around my tent when I was sleeping soundly… somehow they seem to get by with little or no water. Anyway, they are clearly having a huge impact on the
wildlife of the island, and might possibly have driven the endemic Angel Island deer mouse and other rodents to the brink of extinction…
So it doesn’t seem impossible, that they may be adversely affecting the vulture population and letting the ravens get the upper hand… or wing or
whatever. Gracias again for all the input.
Graham
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Fatboy
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| Quote: |
Apart from a few isolated palm canyons
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Is there standing water there in any of those canyons?
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Anyway, they are clearly having a huge impact on the wildlife of the island, and might possibly have driven the endemic Angel Island deer mouse and
other rodents to the brink of extinction…
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Cats, rats and goats sure do play havoc with local isolated ecosystems!!!!
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Skipjack Joe
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Are there any settlements on the island? If so are there vultures near them? I'll wager there are not.
I think that vultures benefit greatly from people and their populations are far greater than they would be otherwise in baja. I see vultures at dump
sites, at highways eating road kills, and at fish cleaning stations. For example, the palm trees at San Lucas Cove are lined with vultures waiting for
pangueros but I don't see them at San Marcos island, just 5 miles away (even though there is a colony of seals nearby).
Crows and vultures have different requirements I believe. Crows can get by eating a variety of things and can hunt to a degree.
So, I think it's the relative lack of food that makes vultures scarce at the island. I don't think it's feral cats.
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Graham
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I didn’t see a drop of standing water on the island except immediately after a morning of rain. But I didn’t get over to the palm canyons. Some of the
kayakers and car toppers that I wrote about, who did visit the canyons, sent me pictures which show palm trees but no obvious water.
And Skip you make a good point about ravens being able to hunt as well as scavenge. Several times I witnessed them working in concert trying to drive
ospreys off their nests, presumbably to get at the eggs and chicks. But on the other hand, in spite of all the protections afforded the island, I
shared campsites with several groups of poachers from the mainland. At the time they were clearly visiting the island with impunity and told me they
had been doing so for years. After a night of diving, the shore next morning would be littered with their fish guts, lobster heads, shucked clams,
etc. And the birds would be there in abundance – gulls and ravens mostly, but not a vulture! There used to be a huge scallop camp on the island with
as many as 1500 residents, at a time when LA Bay had a fraction of that population. According to the former residents I interviewed, the camp
activities were attracting veritable plagues of sharks, rattlesnakes, and flies, so I have to keep an open mind about there being insufficient food
for vultures.
I’ll probably have to visit some remote islands without feral cats to see what extent turkey vultures are present or absent.
Appreciate all the good points.
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