Why So Many Turkey Vultures on the Mokelumne River? Oh Yeah...

 Let's face it: Turkey Vultures (Cathartes aura) can be really creepy. Not so much when they're soaring on the thermals; that's when they are actually beautiful. No, it's when they are perched on the branches right over your head staring at you. It's like they're hoping you'll have a heart attack so they can have some lunch.

I was walking along the Mokelumne River this morning near the fish hatchery just below Camanche Reservoir. I had not yet reached the river and was looking for other birds, but I couldn't help but notice that nearly every tree had a Turkey Vulture perching on the top branches. They were all over the place. So yeah, a bit creepy.

As I got closer to the river I heard odd splashing sounds, and suddenly it occurred to me. It was the Chinook Salmon run! The spot where I was walking is the end of the road for the salmon, as Camanche Reservoir blocks their upstream progress. I wondered if there was a fish ladder, and there was, but it led only into the fish hatchery where workers collect the eggs for rearing in the complex. The fish ladder was closed, presumably because their holding tanks were full, so the upper pool of the river was full of Chinook trying to go farther upstream. And the vultures were waiting for a tasty lunch.

Here's a short video of the fish swimming in the Mokelumne River.

Cute Downy Baby Bird Alert! Well...um...Young Turkey Vultures on the Tuolumne River

You know what? I wasn't always the handsome dashing geologist/naturalist that you see before you now. Let's face it: I was an ugly baby. But you also know what? All babies deserve some love and tenderness, so put aside your prejudices about rotting meat and dead carcasses and give these two baby Turkey Vultures (Cathartes aura) some well-deserved love and tenderness. The scavengers of our ecosystems have a dirty job, and the world would be a much worse place if they weren't around to clean it up for us.

It's not always a pleasant experience to realize there is something really big in the brush off to your side when walking alone on a trail. The Tuolumne River Parkway Trail is not exactly a wilderness with bears and mountain lions or other menacing creatures, but there is still a moment of uncertainty and doubt when some large animal makes that first detectable motion. I quickly looked around and could see that it was actually a pair of juvenile turkey vultures warming themselves on a fallen log. I've seen an adult in the immediate vicinity in the last couple of days, but I have no idea where their next was located.

So....hold your nose and politely say to the proud parents what lovely babies they are raising. It's the polite thing to do.

Juvenile Turkey Vulture on the Tuolumne Parkway Trail (and mama needs to talk to him/her about smoking)

My exploration on the Tuolumne Parkway Trail in Waterford had all kinds of surprises this morning. I saw River Otters for the first time in my life, I saw a sparrow attacking itself in a side-view mirror, and there was this, a juvenile Turkey Vulture blocking the pathway. I was turning a corner on the trail and saw a big black thing, and couldn't tell right away what it was. It had a gray colored head, so I mentally eliminated vulture and thought turkey, but as I drew closer I could see the beak more clearly. It was definitely a Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura). A few moments of research back at the house confirmed it. The juveniles don't have the characteristic red heads of the adult vultures.

I'm sure it will learn soon enough to be wary of humans. I was worried at first that it was injured as it didn't fly away as I approached. I waited a fair bit of time to let it decide to move out of the way, but eventually I walked forward and it flew into the brush. While I was waiting, a feral cat came out out of the brush and they studied each other for awhile.

The strange title has to do with what the young vulture was doing when I arrived on the scene. It had something in his/her mouth, and I didn't find out until later on that it was a cigarette butt. That little juvenile delinquent was smoking (sort of)! The concept is a bit funny, but the actuality is a bit worrisome. We leave a lot of trash in the environment, and a lot of it is dangerous to creatures who might get into it. The new trail has been mostly trash-free, but I still have to take a trash bag with me sometimes when I walk.

Bird of the Day: Turkey Vultures at Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge

One of my favorite television shows was "Dirty Jobs", in which Mike Rowe took a stab at doing the kinds of crummy jobs that make life liveable for the rest of us: the sewer work, the cleaning jobs, all the stuff that few of us would ever want to do, but someone has to do it, or else. Sometimes we hold some of these unfortunate folks in low esteem, but I try not to. They are real heroes in my book.

That's the way things sometimes work in the bird world as well. Things die and they get stinky and kind of put a damper on the "circle of life" thing, except that there are animals who come along to process and consume the carcasses. They are the scavengers. There are several birds that fill this role, but two are supreme at it: the California Condor and the rarely heralded Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura). As many people realize, the Condor was at the brink of extinction, and still number in the low hundreds, so it is the Turkey Vulture that most often takes on the role of scavenger in the American west.

We were on a long road trip over the Thanksgiving weekend and made a stop at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge for a second time (we came through briefly on Thursday). I wasn't expecting to see Vultures but couldn't help but notice that dozens of them were roosting in the Eucalyptus trees by the visitor center, so we wandered down for a closer look. They were apparently settling in for the evening.

They can hardly be called beautiful birds, but as a function of efficiency, they are nicely adapted. Given that they spend a lot of time with their heads in dead carcasses, the bald skin makes a lot of sense. Their huge wings allow them to soar for hours on warm thermals, and their large nostrils can detect the smell of rotting flesh from great distances.

The Turkey Vultures were originally more of a southern species but have been expanding their range northward, quite possibly in concert with global warming. They are found today in all the lower forty-eight states and parts of Canada as well. They are probably increasing their numbers, but are threatened by pesticides and lead shot used by hunters.

I've always associated the vultures with the grossness of death and dying, but as I watched them yesterday, they seemed rather fastidious in their grooming. Perhaps it was in the manner of the funeral director, who is always well-dressed...someone who fills an important role, even though we don't like thinking about it or dwelling on what they do.