This morning at 9:50am as I drove east on NYS-366 through Varna, I saw a/the white-winged Turkey Vulture soaring rather low near the intersection with Freese & Mt Pleasant Roads. Since the taxi was empty, I was able to pull over and get a binocular view.
On the right wing it only a single white feather, the outermost primary, that is the leading edge. All of the other flight feathers on the right wing were normal (silver below), and the right wing lining was also normal, solid blackish brown. But one the left wing all the primaries were white except a single darker one among them about 4th or 5th from the leading edge. Under the left wing there was a round patch of dark feathers at the base of the primaries separated by whitish from the rest of the dark normal wing lining. Just now I can’t find any photos of the white-winged Turkey Vulture from several years ago, but this bird reminded me very strongly of that bird. If anyone has photos of that bird, or recalls the last time it was sighted, or also saw this bird lately, I would be interested. - - Dave Nutter -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
