Burlington and Hamilton ON. October 18th. 2021. I spent a morning birding with two friends, a marvellous, thirty-five-species morning that included a single late migrating Blackpoll Warbler, a handful of shy Hermit Thrushes , a couple of high-overhead Red–shouldered Hawks, handfuls of Golden and Ruby–crowned Kinglets, Blue Jays, a Sharp–shinned Hawk, two Blue–headed Vireos and at least one Yellow–bellied Sapsucker.
The day started with a sombre assembly of early morning Turkey Vultures gathered on a transmission tower. I pulled over to get this photo of one that has spread its wings to the sun.
A little later as we started our days birding, a spiralling column of Turkey Vultures rose and assembled from behind a woodland, twenty at first then another thirty, rising on a column of warm air, turning and circling until they found the top floor and then slid away, one after the other, gliding and sliding westward with scarcely a wing flap.
There was hardly a moment in the day without a few vultures in the sky. And all because we’ve been overtaken by a change in the weather that started with a drenching but is now made of dramatic skies, colder temperatures and a brisk west wind. Birds take these cold fronts as their cue to head for the exit. Perhaps the last big autumn rush of the year is now on; many smaller birds slip by unseen at night but larger birds: eagles, vultures, buteos, accipiters, and falcons fly by day.
I was inspired to write this when, late-afternoon, a neighbour came knocking at our door to tell me he’d seen seventy vultures circling over his house. He wanted to know the whole story: who, what, why, when, and where. As we talked, more vultures, a dozen in ones and twos, drifted over. It dawned on me then that this day belongs to Turkey Vultures.