We met some friends at Violet’s Lock on the C&O Canal and went for a walk with them, heading southeast on the towpath. It was a cool day, mostly overcast, but it was really good to be outdoors. We didn’t seem herons as we have recently but did get a pretty good view of this black vulture (Coragyps atratus) flying overhead. This outing was mostly to visit with our friends, and I only took a few photos but I’m pretty happy with this one. Vultures are not most peoples’ favorite bird but they have a beauty of their own.
Tagged With: Black Vulture
Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus)
Coragyps atratus (Black Vulture)
I had a dentist appointment this morning, finally getting around to that after a long hiatus kicked off by all the changes made by the Wuhan Virus Crisis. After the appointment I went to the Lancaster County Dutch Market to buy some meat. I really like the selection they have and their prices are reasonable. In particular, they have very good bacon, both plain and with black pepper. They also have cured pork chops that are terrific. I happened to drive around the back of the shopping center and there were some black vultures (Coragyps atratus) in the parking lot. This one let me get quite close without flying away. They are not the prettiest birds you’ll see, but hey, they are what they are. And they help deal with dead animals. That’s not actually a bad thing.
Black Vulture
I’m not sure a medical rehab facility is a place you want to see vultures but that’s where this one is. They are, apparently, drawn to the fresh water and we’ve seen there here a few times. It’s both disconcerting and humorous at the same time. Of course, there’s no real connection between the vultures and the patients, which allows it to be funny. And we like birds, so we actually enjoyed seeing them. The first time we saw them there were five or more. This time, when I happened to have my camera, there was only the one, unfortunately. And I didn’t have a long enough lens to really get a good photo of the bird.
Hawk and Vulture
As mentioned in the previous post, also from today, we stopped at the Izaak Walton League’s Lake Halcyon where I photographed three different duck species. From there we continued to the C&O Canal, parking at Violet’s Lock and walking down river past Blockhouse Point. We were treated right away to the first bird shown here, a juvenile sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter striatus). He was fairly easy to spot because there were folks with binoculars looking up into the tree where he was perched.
It was a lovely day to be out, very bright and comfortably cool. Around Blockhouse Point we saw a pair of black vulturex (Coragyps atratus) enjoying the warmth from the sun. They were across the canal from us and seemed to be unconcerned with our presence. This photograph, in particular, I like. As we were walking back towards Violet’s lock, a couple with binoculars pointed out a bald eagle on a tree on an island in the river. It was pretty far away, but easily identifiable. We saw quite a few smaller birds, as well, but I didn’t get any photos of them. We saw a few turtles, too. When we got back to the parking area, what we assume was the same sharpie was in a different tree but in the same area.
Coragyps atratus (Black Vulture)
We went to the C&O Canal today, walking about a mile and a half upstream from Seneca Creek and Riley’s Lock. We saw a few great blue herons (Ardea herodias) and one green heron (Butorides virescens), as well as a few smaller birds. But my favorite for this walk was this black vulture (Coragyps atratus) who landed on a tree quite close to us. Like most birds but unlike the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) the black vulture does not hunt by smell but is often seen in the company of turkey vultures, which have this advantage.