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Since You Asked: Turkey vultures were late, but they're here Saturday Mar 11, 2017 at 12:01 AM Every year around the first day of spring, hundreds of turkey vultures silently come gliding into the valley heading to their summer nesting areas. They usually come in two waves. The males come first, I think, and about three days later the females. Can you tell us any more about this annual event? — Lynn O., via email   We here at Since You Asked have often been told our answers are for the birds, but that doesn't mean we actually know anything about birds. However, our cubicle is right next door to the plush, climate-controlled suites occupied by the team from Oregon Outdoors, so we sent your note over to them. It turns out that Southern Oregon University biologist Stewart Janes, who pens a monthly column for the Outdoors section called "Bird's Eye View," knows quite a bit about turkey vultures. March is when the bulk of the vulture population returns to the Rogue Valley, Janes informed us. "Lynn is correct on that point," he said. "However, the influx is not restricted to two waves, and I have not read anything to the effect that males and females arrive at different times. In a great many songbirds, males do arrive before the females — anywhere from a few days to two weeks — so it is possible. "I have already observed more than a dozen vulture flocks of various size — from six to 30 birds — over the last 10 days over Medford, Talent and Ashland. They were held up a bit this year because of the cold weather. The vanguard usually arrives during the last days of January, with small groups arriving off and on through February, with the bulk passing through in March. "I believe the first migrants were reported about Feb. 25 this year," Janes said. — Send questions to “Since You Asked,” Mail Tribune Newsroom, P.O. Box 1108, Medford, OR 97501; by fax to 541-776-4376; or by email to [email protected]. We’re sorry, but the volume of questions received prevents us from answering all of them.