Video - Soaring with Turkey Vultures

Nicely done Gus, I too like flying with soaring birds but have not had
much sucess with Turkey Vultures . Black Vultures however I find are
much more willing to let you stay with them . Never have I seen a
Vulture show aggression and when closing on one they have in my
experience always left in a hurry . In talking with an ornithologist
he offered the opinion that not being predators Vultures are much less
likely to consider any threatening actions such as Eagles might . None
the less I could not agree more about keeping your distance as I knew
of a pilot whose canopy was smashed in a collision with a Vulture . He
was lucky to survive .

On Dec 14, 6:19*am, " wrote:
Nicely done Gus, I too like flying with soaring birds but have not had
much sucess with Turkey Vultures . Black Vultures however I find are
much more willing to let you stay with them . Never have I seen a
Vulture show aggression and when closing on one they have in my
experience always left in a hurry . In talking with an ornithologist
he offered the opinion that not being predators Vultures are much less
likely to consider any threatening actions such as Eagles might . None
the less I could not agree more about keeping your distance as I knew
of a pilot whose canopy was smashed in a collision with a Vulture . He
was lucky to survive .

Turkey Vultures hunt by smell and usually stay close to the ground,
soaring in micro-lift that isn't any good for sailplanes.
Occasionally, you'll see them at cloud base like in this video. Here
in Arizona, they often mix with Black Vultures, which have a higher
wing loading and hunt visually. In South Africa, the Cape Vultures
would frequently fly with gliders, making sometimes an uncomfortably
close formation. I have had a close encounter with an eagle (Golden,
I think) that made a few stoops at me to scare me away, but the
vultures never seem to be a flight risk. I guess you can hit anything
if you try hard enough!

Mike

Mike