Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura)
We went to Pennyfield Lock on the C&O Canal today, walking upstream just a little less than 2 miles. We took it fairly slowly and stopped to listen for—and even occasionally photograph—birds. The Merlin app identified four vireos (red-eyed, white-eyed, warbling, and yellow-throated), as well as indigo buntings, orchard oriole, and a few different fly- and gnat-catchers. I got a few nice photos of a great egret (Ardea alba), a couple great blue herons (Ardea herodias) and this turkey vulture (Cathartes aura). I also got photos that aren’t all that good but at least allowed me to identify a ruby-throated hummingbird (Archilochus colubris), an immature male orchard oriole (Icterus spurius), an indigo bunting (Passerina cyanea), and some black vultures (Coragyps atratus). The three smaller birds were way up in tree tops so the photos were not very good at all. Google lens tried to convince me that the orchard oriole was an Asian golden weaver (Ploceus hypoxanthus). Even when I included ‘Maryland’ in my description, it insisted that the picture was not from Maryland because that bird doesn’t exist here. The Merlin app did a better job with it.
