birdsoup

Birds are found everywhere. From the driest desert to the rain forest, from the highest mountains to lowest valleys. In cities and in the country.

Today I was driving on fumes. So I stopped at a gas station to fill up. As I was filling the tank I looked up and saw a Black Vulture soaring overhead. I didn’t expect it. It surprised me.

Turkey Vultures are the common vulture in this area, but Black Vultures are showing up here and there more frequently. Both are big black soaring birds. The Black Vulture has shorter but wider wings. They also have white on the outer tips of the wings, as opposed to the Turkey Vulture which has white on the trailing edge of the wing. Turkey Vultures have red heads, Black Vultures, black heads.

Turkey Vultures soar with the wings held at an angle, forming something of a V shape. Black Vultures hold their wings flat.
The important factor is to keep your eyes open. You never know when you may see an interesting bird.

I remember once being at the NY Botanical Garden and noticing a Robin sitting on a nest on a branch that was just 10 feet above a main path. Most of the people walk right under the nest and never realized the nest was there. As Sherlock Holmes would say, they looked but they did not see.