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Bird of the Month Turkey Vultures are large dark birds with a featherless red head and a wingspan of nearly six feet. When soaring, they hold their wings slightly raised in a "V." Turkey Vultures eat carrion, which they find largely by their excellent sense of smell. They nest in rock crevices, caves, ledges, thickets, hollow logs, fallen trees, abandoned hawk or heron nests, and abandoned buildings, where they scrape out a spot in the soil or leaf litter, pull aside obstacles, or arrange scraps of vegetation or rotting wood. Turkey Vultures are year-round residents from the southern U.S. and western California southward through Mexico and Central America to the southern tip of South America. In summer, part of the population migrates north across almost the entire U.S. and part of southern Canada. In the fall, western birds migrate much farther than those in the east, with large numbers (more than a million) funneling south through Central America. The hundred or more Turkey Vultures that descended on Four Seasons on the evening of Oct. 4 and left the following morning were part of this migration. Birding CLUB September is the heart of fall migration. On Sept. 9 in my backyard I found a House Wren sitting still on the patio door mat. The exhausted migrant didn't move as I got my phone within inches of it for a picture of Four Seasons' first House Wren (bird #101!). On Sept. 29 Cindy Graves found an Orange- crowned Warbler at The Lodge that was so weak that it could be handled; another exhausted migrant. Then came the Great Turkey Vulture Fallout of 2020! It started on the evening of Oct. 4 when Nanette Scott, Rhonda Louden, and Jane Slamer independently reported "a BUNCH of Turkey Vultures," "maybe a hundred," and "quite impressive and eerie." The next morning was our Oct. 5 bird walk and our masked group was immediately flabbergasted by trees full of vultures along Trails A and B. Later in the morning the vultures took to the air on the thermal updrafts and by Saturday afternoon they were all gone. The arrival on Friday evening of more than 100 and maybe several hundred Turkey Vultures and their abrupt departure the following morning provided birders a glimpse of these birds' southward fall migration. The Birding Club welcomes beginning and experienced birders to participate in monthly bird walks along FS nature trails and to take seasonal field trips. Email steve.h.edelman@ gmail.com. ~ Steve Edelman FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | NOVEMBER 2020 39 Check with your club contact to confirm meeting place, date, and time. Orange-crowned Warbler. Cell-phone photo by Cindy Graves Turkey Vulture. Photo by Texas A&M AgriLife Extension House Wren. Cell-phone photo by Steve Edelman

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