Thermal Scouting

Surveys began each morning, coinciding with the vultures catching thermals and drifting out over the landscape. While driving across the kaleidoscope of properties between towns, industrial parks, fields, and pine forest, the team was enthralled as the vulture aggregations indicated their preferred land use. One mile we would peer at a narrow strip of sky between encroaching pine trees, which filled the vehicle with the smell of their heated pitch, the next we’d find ourselves stopped in a melon field as 80 swallow-tailed kites effortlessly performed acrobatics, plucking dragonflies from midair. Even counting kettles took on a new excitement as anhingas, wood storks, Mississippi kites, red-tailed hawks, and swallow-tailed kites joined the thermals, providing a wonderful mixed specie experience driven by the establishing convection. One evening while observing vulture foraging in a freshly mown field, a six-foot alligator heaved onto the field to join the feeding forays, attracted by mower-exposed frogs and eviscerated snakes.

Pastoral designations on the coastal plain complete with cattle egret closely attending their namesakes, often yielded columns of vultures hanging in the thermals above the herds. The strengthened thermals stratified the raptors as turkey vultures continued to rock their way across the landscape, effortlessly capitalizing on any small updraft, while black vultures with their directed flight and trailing legs gained altitude until nearly disappearing. When possible, any potential vulture meal was noted. Most took the form of roadkill, such as armadillos, raccoons, and deer. Tallymen would stop by the side of the road and record both perched and flying vultures; this was documented along with a mile marker so surveyed vultures could be linked with the landscape and assist in establishing population density and dispersal.