Vultures, (turkey) vultures everywhere
The turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) is the most common vulture in the Americas and I had a close encounter with a whole bunch of them near the summit of White Hill in Marin County, out of Fairfax. I was doing a long hard mountain bike ride as training for the upcoming Durango 100 and must have been looking not so lively anymore when I catched their interest. They seemed rather tame as I could approach them fairly easily. They look beautiful and gracious when they’re flying high above you, but they’re butt ugly up close and personal – or, as we say in Flemish, ‘schoon van ver maar ver van schoon’... The ‘turkey’ denotation in the species’ name is by the way a consequence of their unappetizing facial features (kalkoensmoelen).
In related news, they’re playing Casablanca in the Stanford theatre (but I’ve seen it already too many times).
August 17th, 2006 at 2:29
Condors hebben ook van die kalkoensmoelen, en blijven best op een afstand zweven.
August 20th, 2006 at 21:17
Condors zijn hier nogal zeldzaam geloof ik… Bart Van Bockstaele op de expat-blog van De Standaard zei dat die turkey vultures in het Nederlands ‘roodkopgieren’ genoemd worden. Om een of andere reden moet ik nu ineens aan Bok denken