Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2011/11/28
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]The Turkey Vulture isn't one of our prettiest birds, and its eating habits (not shown) make most of us squeamish. It's a very widespread species, most often seen soaring overhead with a teetering dihedral. Despite the huge amount of time this species spends in the air, it doesn't have strong flight muscles depending instead on updrafts such as ridge lift (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ridge_lift) and thermals (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermals) to remain aloft. For the last several mornings California's Central Valley has been socked in with dense fog; this and the still air have for all practical purposes "grounded" the vultures. They can take flight from the ground but their weak flight muscles limit their un-aided flight to a few hundred meters at most so instead of fighting gravity they'd rather wait for the fog to clear and thermals to start. http://www.wildlightphoto.com/birds/cathartidae/tuvult03.html Technical stuff: R8/DMR, 280mm f/4 APO, shoulder stock, monopod & tree trunk. Slight horizontal crop. All comments welcome. Doug Herr Birdman of Sacramento http://www.wildlightphoto.com