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I fly sailplanes for sport, and have only attended
two contests. However, I have had many occasions in the country (rural),
where, if you get into a thermal the vultures will come right to you and fly
with you. I have had them come from so far away that I did not know they
were around, but they came to us straight as a string and it was obvious that
they were coming to us --- all because of a single sailplane circling in a
thermal. Most of this experience was with two meter sailplanes. I
have not flown very large sailplanes in this type situation much to date.
Since everything looks "black" from a distance, maybe they thought the sailplane
was another vulture.
It is nice to have them join you because they are
able to track the movement of the thermal perfectly. I never did have a
midair, but once we had eight in the same thermal with us. It's pretty
cool. Once they gained the altitude they wanted they would head off
looking for dinner (I guess). They never did seem afraid of the sailplane,
but they were not aggressive toward it either.
It has been my experience that hawks thermal better
than vultures, but hawks are not attracted to sailplanes in a thermal
(ordinarily).
Ed Jett
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, March 13, 2002 5:17
AM
Subject: Re: [RCSE] Speaking of soaring
birds.
What you are seeing are Black Vultures. We have both kind here, on the east
coast. The black vulture is a little smaller than the Turkey Buzzard. The tail
is a little shorter and the wing beats are faster. You can find a better
discription at this link.
http://nasa.utep.edu/chih/theland/animals/birds/catratus.htm
Pete
Harley Michaelis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Paul's
pics have me stirred up about something, I gotta tell you guys.
I
have seen large, eagle-like black birds very close up while sloping.
I
wonder if any of you also have crossed paths with these extraordinary
birds
and were as slack-jawed as I was as to their startling appearance
and
identity?
On one occasion, 2 of them, 5-6 feet wingspan,
flying side by side,
approached my 12' GENIE which may have been 50 to
100 feet away from me. I
had a totally clear view of them and I tell you
this: They were coal black,
with feathered heads, black feet and black,
hooked beaks. "Black eagle" is
the only appropriate description. They
were not those disgusting turkey
buzzards. These were a different critter
I had never seen before in my 35
odd years of soaring.
Plain as
day on the underside of each wing was a prominent,
parallelogram-shaped
marking made up of white/grayish feathers.
On another occasion I saw
two such large birds of that configuration
thermalling at high altitude,
side by side. No, they were not hawks or other
familiar birds. The
impression was that they were big and they were black,
same as the birds
at the slope. Yes, I know backlit stuff in silhouette all
looks rather
black. These were blacker.
A web search for "Black Eagle Bird" will
give many references to black
eagles. Though not prevalent here, they are
else-where in Africa, Malaysia
and India. These guys may have an affluent
breed doing a world tour to see
what else there was of interest to
eat.
On another occasion when I was flying alone at Eagle Butte, one
of the
critters sidled up to my ship.
>
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