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CLEAR Temp: 50 °F Wind: CLM at 0 mph Thursday, November 21, 2002 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine W3 Magazine Jobs @ Mail Tribune Tempo A & E Oregon CarZone Wellness Connection Real Estate Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend September 28, 2002 A turkey vulture lands on a vulture-filled tree along Interstate 5 near Phoenix. They�re seemingly everywhere this time of year, gathering in preparation for a long flight south. Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Killin’ time Turkey vultures set to head south, or not By BILL VARBLE Mail Tribune Turkey vultures gather in a dead oak next to Interstate 5 in the vulture equivalent of a coffee klatch. As the sun begins its climb, black shadows on gnarled limbs spread their wings to warm feathered bodies and roll away the dew. As their biological clocks tick, smart vultures around the valley are preparing to head south for the winter. Their dark shapes festoon a snag outside of Eagle Point. A kettle of 30 or more spirals upward near the Medford airport. A half- dozen soar above Ashland’s Plaza. Turkey vultures begin arriving in Jackson County by the end of February and are common by the end of March. Widespread in Oregon all summer, most are gone by the end of October. Their year-round range extends as far north as northwestern California, but the last two years one or two have wintered over here. "Two years ago, I saw one on New Year’s Day," says John Kemper, secretary of Audubon’s Jackson County checklist committee. Kemper speculates that vultures may have wintered over before now and not been noticed. "We used to have condors in Oregon, too," he says of the vultures’ highly endangered larger cousins, nearly wiped out by DDT and people who shoot first and ask questions later. The Bear Creek Valley is a principal migration route for vultures, Kemper says, so we’re seeing both "our" vultures and ones from farther north. New World vultures were long thought to be related to raptors, but DNA studies have shown they are more closely related to storks — with whom they share strong bills, naked heads and some behavioral traits — than to hawks. Turkey vultures nest in undisturbed caves, rock crevices or hollow tree trunks. They often roost communally. Blessed with resistance to the microbes in rotting flesh, vultures will take live prey such as baby birds and reptiles. They have massive, meat-ripping bills but relatively weak feet, unlike raptors. Turkey vultures are master soarers and master sniffers, rocking back and forth on slightly veed wings as they search for carcasses. The part of a bird’s brain that gets data from smell receptors, the olfactory bulb, is very large in vultures, which most experts believe enables them to find carrion by the odor of ethyl mercaptan, a chemical in rotting meat. In the East, black vultures sometimes follow turkey vultures in hopes of being led to a meal from which they run the turkey vultures off. Vultures’ heads are bare because if you make a living sticking your head inside the carcasses of dead critters, you don’t want feathers to get gummed up. Turkey vultures are monogamous. Courtship displays include ritual lifting of the wings and feet while perched and soaring together. Chicks are attended closely and still associate with their parents after fledging at about six weeks. Some migrating vultures go to California, some to Mexico. There’s a Turkey Vulture Festival in Kernville, Calif., where 30,000 of them have been counted in September. Unlike their cousins the storks, most of which were killed off when humans drained the Florida Everglades for farming and development, vultures are thriving. Despite the numbers killed by ranchers, especially in Florida and Texas, populations seem to be increasing, perhaps aided by roadkill. Turkey vultures don’t usually get up until the sun is high enough for thermals, or rising air currents. One day soon they’ll keep going up and up, drifting ever south, coasting on thermal gradients with the updrafts fail. After they winter in sunnier climes, the cycle will start all over again. Reach reporter Bill Varble at 776-4478 or e-mail [email protected] Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright 1997-2002 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy webmaster feedback A D V E R T I S E R S