To fly without wing flapping
Randy Weinstein took this photo in Stallion Springs of a Turkey Vulture soaring overhead. September and October are the two main months each year when an epic migration of Turkey Vultures moves through Tehachapi Pass.
Past counts conducted by the Tehachapi Mountains Birding Club revealed that more than 30,000 Turkey Vultures (Cathartes aura) travel through the Tehachapi area each autumn.
Most migrating birds move south to avoid weather and to obtain a replacement food source when their summer food, like insects, for example, disappears in the colder months.
Turkey Vultures, however, exclusively feed on carrion, and creatures die yearround, so it isn’t a shortage of food that compels tens of thousands of Turkey Vultures from Canada, Washington, Oregon and Northern California to move south into southern California and Mexico.
Turkey Vultures are actually following the sun on its apparent migration south each winter. These large, kite-like birds head south where the days are still long enough to ensure that there is enough daily solar heating to create the rising updrafts they use to soar, without having to expend energy by flapping their wings.
These columns of rising warm air, called thermals, are the means that Turkey Vultures use to gain altitude over the landscape below.
As the vultures pass through our area, any birds still in Tehachapi Valley by late afternoon seek a roost in large trees here for the night, hoping to resume their journey the following morning.
And although countless people will spot circling Turkey Vultures (a behavior called “kettling”) and say “Vultures are circling, there must be something dead,” these dark birds don’t actually eat at all during their fall migration.
The Nuwä (Kawaiisu or Paiute) word for Turkey Vulture is wükümahaazi, pronounced wuh-kuh-ma-HAA-zi.
NATURAL SIGHTINGS is a regular feature of the Tehachapi News edited by Jon Hammond which showcases photos of the natural beauty that enhances the quality of life in Tehachapi. If you have a good quality image of plants, animals, insects, trees, birds, weather phenomena, etc., taken in the Tehachapi area, submit it to the Tehachapi News. Or drop it off by the News office in the form of a print or CD, or sent by email to: editorial@tehachapinews.com.