Not a Hawk

[howeird]

Originally uploaded by how3ird.

While I was riding Amtrak Saturday morning approaching Martinez from Richmond, a small flock of what I thought were hawks took off from the bay shore, and sailed along in the train's slipstream.

I took the obligatory photos (the VR lens worked nicely this time) and upon downloading to the PC and taking a closer look, discovered they were turkey vultures.

Comments

[scendan.livejournal.com]

Indeed they are, although turkey vultures have a beautiful soar.

One way to tell at a distance (if, of course, they are soaring, not flapping) is that turkey vultures soar on a "v" wing and have a tendency to wobble when soaring at low speeds. Hawks and eagles (which are closer in size than most hawks) soak on a flat wing. Also, turkey vultures are nearly black on the primaries and have a dark grey to the rest of the wing...that can help sometimes.

[scendan.livejournal.com]

Make that "SOAR" on a flat wing. Not soak. Can I blame the typos on a tendonitis flareup?

[howeird]

You can blame it on the Revan arm brace thingies. BTW, I fixed the link, there are two more photos on Flickr - one shows that V you mentioned.

[scendan.livejournal.com]

Spiffy! I actually LIKE vultures...when in flight. And otherwise. I mean, without them, think how much more nasty roadkill etc. would be?

Don't want 'em pooping on my house, though... they crap on their feet to thermoregulate.

Seriously.

*goes to look at piccies*

My vambraces? Really? Curses!