Small Mountain - Big Bird

[HikerBob]

After Karen's knee gave out at the end of last weeks hike we decided to go for something easier this week to see how things were healing.

Hiked Mt Norwottuck on the Holyoke Range in Western Massachusetts. Went up by the Metacomet-Monadnock trail and looped back using the Robert Frost trail.

Didn't take, or need for the most part, snowshoes or crampons but the icy conditions in the Horse Caves meant we gave those a miss today.

However, while on the summit we had a great display of effortless flying by a pair of Turkey Vultures and I managed to capture one fly-by in a series of images that really show off the wing markings.

Later on I saw one resting in a tree. When the large dark blob moved my first thought was that it was a treed bear cub, but then I recognized it for what it was. These birds are BIG.

First hike in shorts for the year, it is spring after all Temps nudged into the 50's and the sun shone for most of the hike.

Pics for the curious can be found starting HERE

Bob

 

[MattC]

Wow, amazing vulture pics, Bob. #4 looks like it's flying right towards your camera. It's such a contrast-those ugly little red heads with the beauty of their wings. They're all over the area where I live lately and I had an interesting experience the other day. There's some Norway spruce on a residential street where some of them roost and the other day I was walking by and stopped to watch for a few minutes. One of them jostled another out of the roost, which made a bit of a commotion as it took off.
Apparently, I was too close to the trees for them, because they released their "defense mechanism." Within moments, the smell was so bad that I had to move to the end of the street so I wouldn't retch. Unbelieveably strong. I really need to get some binocs so as to watch them w/o this peril. Interesting critters.

Matt

 

[Dugan]

I was there too on Saturday. We went a few places in the valley with views, also Sugarloaf, Goat, Tom, and Orient. On each we saw several birds that looked like they were playing in the thermals. Mostly crows, then turkey vultures, and also a couple of hawks that I didn't identify (not red tails which are the only ones I remember without a bird book in hand). Brought but did not need traction devices.

Great pictures! I brought a camera but didn't bother with pictures of the vultures because I knew they'd end up looking like black dots in a blue sky. At one point when the dog & I took a break to bask in the sun on the Mt Tom ridge, the vultures seemed to circle above us hopefully. I wonder if we saw some of the same birds?

 

[grouseking]

Vulture Pics

The final pic with the contrail is such a great shot. Man you got lucky to get that! Those things are huge!

grouseking