Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2011/11/28
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Love your work Doug. When the grandkids were here in the summer we had a chance to see one of these in flight and perched on a handlers arm at the Raptor Centre here on Vancouver Island. Couldn't see any of the rescued birds that were going to be returned into the wild but there were a few, like the turkey vulture, that for one reason or another would never go back into the wild. Amazing birds and big too! BarryH At 05:51 PM 28/11/2011, you wrote: >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 > > > >_______________________________________________ >Leica Users Group. >See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information