Kettles, Committees, Wakes

Vultures in the Piedmont

One foggy winter morning, I explored the paths around Town Lake. This was before I knew my way; I didn’t know, for example, that there are two lakes, Upper and Lower. A natural spillway connects them, you can walk across it when the water level is low. Looking back, I must have walked nearly all the way around the lower lake, nearly to the spillway where the lake is more narrow. The fog lightened and across still water I saw a group of vultures hunched on the bank.

double vision
a wake of vultures
across the pond

Since then, we’ve often sat outside with our ducks, one eye on the sky for predators. Usually we just see vultures. Turkey vultures, buzzards, black vultures? Wish I knew…

Black vultures

I recently hiked around B. Everett Jordan Dam and encountered a great number of black vultures.

high voltage
a black vulture shadows
the tower truss

At the time, I didn’t know what kind. Later, I learned about the kinds of vultures, and that they were black vultures at the dam. Black vultures are black/dark, except they have white or light gray wingtips. When they are soaring high above, the white wingtips are a good way to identify them.

I snagged this photo of a black vulture lifting off, over another vulture standing in the water; the white wingtips are visible on the flying bird.

In North Carolina’s Piedmont region, we can see black vultures year-round. This is true across most of the southeastern United States. In the Carolina mountains or the rest of the country, they tend to show up only during their breeding season, March - June.

Turkey vultures

pothole puddle
a turkey vulture floats
across a patch of blue

Around here, I haven’t seen a turkey vulture up close. If you did, they are easy to identify, they have red heads and feet, and their feathers are brown and black. From below, they are pretty easy to identify as the wings are light-colored on the underside, except for the leading edge is black. Turkey vultures are common year-round across the United States.

Thank you Hawk Mountain for this amazing collage.

Buzzards and other fun words

“Buzzard” is used to refer to any vulture, it’s not specific. Black vultures are scientifically known as coragyps atratus. Turkey Vultures are as cathartes aura.

A group of vultures is called a kettle in flight, a wake when eating, and a committee when standing around doing nothing. I also read about other collective nouns such as venue or volt.

Bonus! Vulture chicks are cute.

Thanks u/spidersRcute